The 13^th Party Congress’ Resolution specifies that “…Improving the bravery, quality, capability, ... of the contingent of cadres engaged in foreign affairs and international integration...”. In that spirit, the entire Army has been focusing on building a contingent of Army cadres capable of working in international environments through synchronous and effective solutions to contribute to enhancing international integration and defence foreign affairs in the new situation.

Over the past years, thanks to the leadership and direction of the Central Military Commission, the Ministry of National Defence, and the Party Committees and commanders at all levels, significant results have been recorded in the building of a contingent of Army cadres capable of working in the international environment. Especially, the Vietnam People's Army officers joining the United Nations peacekeeping forces, with the qualities of “Uncle Ho's Soldiers”, have actively shown creative and dynamic activities in their missions, bringing about the sentiment and good image for the “blue-beret soldiers” in general and the Vietnam People's Army in particular, thereby affirming that Vietnam is a reliable partner and an active and responsible member in the international community, and improving the quality and effectiveness of defence foreign affairs of the Party, State, and Army.

Currently, Army cadres working in the international environment are directly involved in military and defence fields and affected by national interests, political views, class stance, and international laws and institutions. They must settle multi-dimensional relationships with intertwined interests among countries and international organisations at different levels and scopes: bilateral, multilateral, formal, informal, etc. that are critical, sensitive, and complicated. Therefore, the Party committees, commanders, and functional agencies at all levels should continue thoroughly grasping and seriously and effectively implementing the 13^th Party Congress’ Resolution on improving the bravery, quality, capability, professional and innovative style of the Army cadres to work in the international environment through some basic contents and solutions as follows.

Firstly, to strengthen the communication and education to create a unified awareness about building a contingent of cadres capable of working in the international environment. The Party committees and commanders at all levels should continue promoting the communication and education of cadres about the Party and State’s views and policies on foreign affairs in general and defence foreign affairs in particular to make them properly aware of the role, significance, importance, and requirements for the task of building a contingent of cadres capable of working in the international environment. To make it effective, agencies and units, based on the actual situation and assigned functions, tasks, and powers, should concretise the Party and State’s guidelines and policies and apply flexibly and creatively the superiors’ resolutions and directives to identify the right goals, tasks, solutions, programs, and plans for the building of this staff, and implement in a specific and appropriate manner. It is necessary to focus on renovating the contents, forms, and methods of communication and education to make cadres at all levels master the contents and fully and deeply aware of the Party's guidelines and State’s policies regarding national defence, security, foreign affairs, and proactive international integration, etc. When implement, importance should be attached to fostering and improving the knowledge and understanding of cadres at all levels about the Party and State's policies of independent and self-reliant foreign affairs and proactive international integration; the history, culture, and traditions of the nation, Party, and Army; our country’s Constitution and laws; international conventions, commitments, and trade agreements to which Vietnam has signed and acceded to; laws, customs, and practices of other countries, especially neighbouring countries, traditional friends, strategic partners, comprehensive partners, major countries, and other partners; and international laws, institutions, practices, and relations, especially relations between major countries that affect Vietnam. At the same time, they should promote the roles and responsibilities of organisations and forces participating in the building of the contingent of cadres, encourage and create favourable conditions for the cadres’ study, cultivation, and training to improve qualifications, professional capacity, foreign language proficiency, and informatic skills under the requirements of the positions in charge and ensure the capacity to work in the international environment.

Secondly, to do well in personnel planning and sourcing for this work. The Party committees, commanders, and functional agencies at all levels should thoroughly grasp and strictly implement the resolutions, directives, and regulations of the Party Central Committee, the Central Military Commission, and the Ministry of National Defence and the guidance of the Political General Department regarding the cadre planning work. The planning of commanders and managers at all levels for working in the international environment must adhere to the requirements of the political tasks of the agencies and units; inherit the planning of the previous terms, among which the subordinates’ planning is taken as the basis for the superiors’ to ensure the inheritance, interconnection, and high feasibility. The process of implementing the planning must be closely linked with training and retraining based on position standards and well doing the mobilisation and rotation of cadres to take up commanding and managing positions in difficult and complex units and areas to practice, challenge, improve practical capacity, and accumulate experience, especially for those working in defence foreign affairs. It is required to focus on selecting young cadres who have received basic training and accumulated experience at grassroots units and those who have strong political stuff, good ethics, clean and healthy lifestyle, and high proficiency of foreign languages, informatics, and ability to command manage, and complete tasks well; priority should be given to the selection of young scientists and highly-graded graduates trained at home and abroad to create sources of cadres at all levels capable of working in the international environment; strengthening the direction, instruction, inspection, and supervision of the superior Party committees over the planning formulation and implementation of the subordinates; and resolutely preventing incapable cadres and opportunist ones from being planned for the work.

Thirdly, to strengthen training and fostering to improve quality, capacity, and working style for cadres at all levels capable of working in the international environment. To be effective, the Party committees and commanders at all levels need to focus on leading and directing the effective implementation of various types of training and fostering of cadres based on their positions, educational qualifications, and politically theoretical levels; closely combining institutional training with in-service fostering and training and self-study; and attaching importance to providing theoretical knowledge and imparting practical experience to improve knowledge and practical capacity for cadres capable of working in the international environment.

Finally, to well implement the Party and State's policies towards the Military and Military’s families and apply mechanisms and policies to attract and utilise talents and create sources for training and fostering of cadres at all levels capable of working in the international environment. In the context of the socialist-oriented market economy development in the period of accelerating industrialisation, modernisation, and international integration, to attract high-quality talents to serve the Army and create sources for training and fostering of cadres capable of working in the international environment, it is necessary to “have mechanisms and policies to create fair and healthy competition and attract and utilise talents”. Therefore, functional agencies need to step up research and advise the Ministry of National Defence to propose to the Party and State to supplement, perfect, and promulgate synchronous mechanisms and policies regarding material and spiritual remuneration that are commensurate with the nature and special working conditions of the Army cadres under the socio-economic development situation of the country and the requirements of the task of building the Army, consolidating national defence, and protecting the Fatherland, thereby, encouraging cadres to stay committed and work wholeheartedly, preserve high-quality human resources, attract the talented to serve the Army in general, and improve the quality of cadres capable of working in the international environment in particular.

Thoroughly grasping the 13^th Party Congress’ Resolution on “Effectively building and implementing the strategy for international cooperation and integration in education and training. Striving to make our country strong in education and training in the region, catch up with the advanced level of the world, and participate in the international human resource training market”, military schools should continue improving the quality of recruitment and doing well in propagation, encouragement, and attraction of talented students or students winning high prizes in domestic and international contests to voluntarily participate in military recruitment. At the same time, the Party committees, commanders, and functional agencies at all levels need to closely lead and direct the selection of qualified cadres in the planning to send to commanding and managing cadre training and fostering courses, especially at divisional and strategic levels; strictly comply with the regulations of the Government and the Ministry of Education and Training on the selection of cadres to send to overseas training and retraining courses under the Government and the Central Organisational Commission’s programs and the defence cooperation programs between the Army and militaries of other countries; associate training and retraining with the arrangement and use of cadres; and well organise defence foreign affairs to create conditions for cadres to practice working skills in the international environment.

Senior Colonel, Assoc. Prof. PhD. BUI QUANG CUONG, Military Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities