Vietnam’s policy of military modernisation is objective, in line with the peaceful and self-defensive nature of the country’s national defence and socio-economic conditions; at the same time, it is the foundation for improving the overall quality and combat power of the Army. A cunning trick of hostile forces is to distort this policy, aiming at "de-politicising" the Army and building a "professional army" - it should be resolutely rejected.

Building a modern Vietnam People's Army is an important content after the strategy of building a revolutionary, regular, elite, and gradually modernised Vietnam People's Army. It is clearly stated in the Party's resolutions, in the Strategy for National Defence, etc., and is institutionalised in the State's policies and laws and has been strived for by the entire Party, people, and Army. Currently, in the face of rapid, complicated, and unpredictable changes in all aspects, especially in national defence and security, the issue of military modernisation has become even more important and urgent. It bears a basic, long-term strategic nature. The Resolution of the 13^th National Party Congress stated: "Building revolutionary, regular, elite, and gradually modernised the People's Army and the People's Public Security Forces, with some arms, services, and forces advancing straight to modernity. The goal is by 2025 build clean, compact, and strong Army and Public Security forces, creating a solid premise for building the People's Army and the People's Public Security forces revolutionary, modernised; politically, morally, ethically, organisationally, and personally strong by 2030”.

This is a clear-sighted, appropriate and urgent policy, deeply reflecting the new thinking of our Party on national defence and military building. Intending to sabotage the cause of military construction, however, the hostile forces have employed all tricks to distort and undermine the appropriate policy, saying: "To modernise the Army, it is necessary to renew it first”; that, "the military model of the West" should be studied and applied. There has been "advice" that to modernise the army, it is important to ally with the major powers that have modern weapons and equipment and "desire to help" Vietnam. More dangerously, they intentionally distort that: Vietnam's strengthening of national defence and security potentials, building up a modern army is to "participate in the arms race", to "trigger a new regional arms race" and to “fight against a third country”; misinterpreting that "Vietnam is preparing for a new war", causing the situation in the region and the East Sea more complicated, etc. They intend to undermine the diplomatic relations between Vietnam and several regional countries. 

To implement their sabotage, hostile forces have attacked us directly, openly, continuously, and vigorously, employing several sophisticated and cunning tricks. They have thoroughly taken advantage of the media, especially social networks, to spread misinformation and distorted documents, and blatantly attacked us, calling for political opportunists and dissenters to support them and impede the policy of building a modern army of our Party and State.

Those tricks are especially dangerous, negatively impacting our military modernisation process and the cause of building the People's Army in the new era. This is because, it interferes, restraints, and hinders the cause of building the revolutionary, regular, elite, gradually modern Vietnam People's Army; causing difficulties for our country in international relations and military and defence diplomacy, especially with major powers and countries in the region, weakening the efforts to maintain peace, stability, and development of the country. They also calculated that, if they could not derail the modernisation of the People’s Army, at least, their activities would cause suspicions, certain panic, and undermine the people's belief in the military and national defence guidelines, and the policy of building a modern Army of our Party and State; thereby creating the expectation of building an army towards the Western model; arousing the "belief" in the society in the alliance, support and "assistance" from a major power to modernise the army.

We all know that building strong armed forces in general and the Army in particular is an indispensable requirement for any country; modernisation is also a demand of any country's armed forces or army. It is an obvious fact that no organisation or country could deny. Accordingly, each country, based on its specific characteristics, situation, socio-economic conditions, and tasks of its country's armed forces, should appropriately modernise its weapons and technical equipment. At present, the world situation is complicated. Local wars, armed conflicts, ethnic and religious conflicts, arms races, and border and territorial disputes, etc. have happened in many places with increasingly complex nature. Therefore, the issue of building and modernising the military for self-defence and safeguarding peace has ever become important and urgent. As a result, the Party and State's policy of building a modern army, with several arms, services, and forces are given priority to go straight towards modernity is objective. This policy is not "unnecessary", "irrelevant", negatively affecting "people's life" as the words of hostile forces. Otherwise, it is a policy that reflects the strategic importance in the new context; at the same time, affirming that Vietnam has had all the conditions, capabilities, and consensus, reflecting the desire of the entire Party, people, and Army for building a modern Army.

On the other hand, the development of the Fourth Industrial Revolution along with the emergence of new tactics in modern wars have been placing increasing demands on the task of defending independence, sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity of the Fatherland; especially safeguarding the sovereignty of sea and islands, defending the Fatherland in cyberspace, and defending the Fatherland "from early and afar", etc. Therefore, it is urgent to accelerate the Army modernisation roadmap, focusing on developing some forces straight towards modernity and build an "elite, compact and strong" Army. It is considered by our Party and State an important task in building the Army. The great and historically significant achievements of 35 years of renovation, together with the initial results achieved from the military modernisation process over the past time, ensure us the necessary and sufficient conditions to build a modern Army as determined by the Party’s 13^th Congress Resolution. That policy also clearly states that, in addition to promoting and improving the efficiency of the available weapons and equipment, it is necessary to have new and modern hardware to meet the requirements of the task of defending the Fatherland and in line with the country's socio-economic conditions.

In addition, strengthening national defence capability and modernising the Army is to actively maintain peace and stability, preventing risks of conflict, and defending the Fatherland from afar. At the same time, it is to ensure that the Army has the strength, and is ready to fight and win wars against invasion, firmly defending the Fatherland in all situations. That is the purpose of self-defence, demonstrating the peaceful, just, independent, self-reliant, non-aligned nature in the policy of building a modern Army, not a "trigger" of an arms race in the region, or to "counter a third country", to make the situation more complicated and "hotter" like the treacherous misinformation of hostile forces.

At present, though several actors have expressed "support" for the Party and State's policy of military modernisation, they stated that the Army should be loyal only to the Fatherland, not to be put under the leadership of the Party; and that, once we could equip the Army with modern weapons, they will be stronger, having effective deterrent capabilities, etc. This is a very dangerous and sinister trick, aiming to cover up the plot to "depoliticise" the armed forces, to make our Army lose its political direction and combat goals. Here, it should be noticed that, along with other development programs, the building up the Army in the direction of a modern, lean, compact, and strong one also aims to constantly strengthen the nature of the working class, their people, and the national character, consolidating its pure nature of the people, by the people and for the people; being an effective political force and a fighting force that is loyal and trustworthy to the Party, the State, the Fatherland, and the People, and being capable of fulfilling all that duties, rather than following the model of Western "professional army" like the intention of hostile forces. Our Party, State, People, and Army always uphold the will and spirit of independence and self-reliance in building up a modern Army. Therefore, it is unlikely to give up the defence policy of "4 nos" as the "advice" of hostile forces. However, “Depending on circumstances and specific conditions, Viet Nam will consider developing necessary, appropriate defence and military relations with other countries based on respecting each other's independence, sovereignty, territorial unity and integrity as well as fundamental principles of international law, cooperation for mutual benefits and common interests of the region and international community”.

Along with that, it is necessary to be aware that: we manage to build a modern Army not only in terms of weapons and equipment, but also in all other aspects constituting the combat power of the army, including the theoretical foundation of the Army of Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh's ideology and the Party's viewpoints and guidelines on building an all-people national defence, the people's war, the consolidation of the People's Army, and the protection of the socialist Fatherland. In addition, it is also a profound understanding of the concept of "man first, then weapons", balancing the relationship between manpower and weapons in training and being ready to fight. Once we derail from the above principles and requirements, building up a modern army will be disorienting. If so, it would not only decrease the combat strength and nature of the working class of the Army but also lead to immeasurable danger.

Building a modern Vietnam People's Army is to create a solid core in the "pillars" of the synergy of: "strong economy", "firm defence", "internal strength", peaceful "people’s heart", and "stable socio-political situation"; "the whole nation is a united unity" as defined by our Party in the Strategy for National Defence. That is the appropriate policy of our Party and State and also the aspiration and desire of the people to build a truly powerful People's Army, capable of firmly defending the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

NGUYEN MANH HUONG - NGUYEN VAN HA^*

* Infantry Officer College No.1