The Provincial Border Guard (PBG) of Tay Ninh is assigned to manage and protect a 240-km-long border section of Viet Nam with the Kingdom of Cambodia’s Svay Rieng, Prey Veng, and Tbong Khmum provinces. In Tay Ninh province’s border area, there are 20 communes under 5 districts, 3 international border gates (Moc Bai, Tan Nam, Xa Mat), 3 main border gates (Phuoc Tan, Chang Riec, Ka Tum), 10 secondary border gates, and many trails across the border. Over the years, the situation in the province’s border area has been basically stable; national sovereignty, border security, and social order and safety have been maintained; the province’s relations with Cambodia’s localities have been developed. In spite of those comprehensive positive results, the province’s border area is still confronted with many destabilising factors. Hostile forces have been stepping up their sabotage activities against our country’s revolution and their strategy to undermine solidarity between the two countries’ competent forces and people; crimes of all types, particularly drug trafficking and smuggling tend to be on the increase and hard to be controlled. Violations of border-related regulations, illegal immigration, and land disputes are still complicated; the number of Vietnamese Cambodians coming back to settle down in several border communes of the province tends to be on the rise. That situation poses challenges to and imposes more demanding requirements on the province, particularly the PBG – the core force in charge of managing and protecting national sovereignty and border security.

The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the PBG and Prey Veng province’s gendarmerie

Performing its assigned functions, first of all, the PBG has focused on giving sound advice to the province’s Party Committee, People’s Council, and People’s Committee on strengthening their leadership and direction over the management and protection of national sovereignty and security as well as the building of a border of peace, friendship, cooperation, and mutual development. Grasping the Party’s resolutions and directives, particularly the 12^th Politburo’s Resolution 33-NQ/TW, dated 28 September 2018 on the Strategy for National Border Protection and the 13^th Politburo’s Directive 24-CT/TW, dated 13 July 2023 on firmly ensuring national security amid comprehensive and extensive international integration, the PBG Command has proactively assisted the province’s Party Committee and People’s Committee in developing action plans/programs and issuing resolutions, directives, and legal normative documents on the management and protection of national sovereignty and security in accordance with the particularities of the border area. The PBG has closely worked with sectors, departments, and all-level authorities to implement the Project on “enhancing law dissemination and education for cadres and citizens in the border area” and disseminate the Law on National Border, treaties on border demarcation, the Protocol on land border demarcation and marker planting between Viet Nam and Cambodia, and the Government’s Decree 112/2014/NĐ-CP, dated 21 November 2014 on regulations for managing land border gates, thereby raising public awareness of building and protecting national sovereignty and the system of national border markers, particularly in the border area.

The PBG has actively built and consolidated the “postures of people’s hearts and minds” and all-people border defence as a fundamental measure to promote the synergy of the entire political system and people in managing and protecting national sovereignty and border security. To that end, the PBG has closely cooperated with sectors, departments, and unions in building political bases, fostering socio-economic development, helping the people with hunger eradication and poverty reduction, and improving the people’s living standards in the border area. It has advised the province to invest more resources in building the all-people border defence in terms of potential, force, and posture. Grounded on the PBG’s advice, the province has directed its border districts to enhance the movement titled “the masses self-manage borderline and border markers, maintain security and order in the border area” and practically, effectively carry out the policy on putting land, forests, borderline sections, and border markers under the joint management of frontier households and the PBG. Besides, the PBG, especially its working teams and groups have played its core role in encouraging the people to implement the Party’s guidelines and the State’s policy, eliminate depraved customs, and adhere to immigration regulations.

A joint patrol along the border between the PBG and other forces

Under the Provincial Party Committee’s direction, the PBG has deployed its cadres to border communes’ party committees, assigned party members of its border guard posts to join meetings of hamlet-level party cells, and appointed its cadres to provide support for frontier households. Up to now, it has deployed 19 cadres to local party committees and authorities, assigned 153 party members to join meetings of party cells of 96 hamlets, and appointed 412 party members to provide support for 1,475 households in the border area. Besides, the PBG has actively adopted models to help the people with economic development, hunger eradication, and poverty reduction, while building hamlets of culture and carrying out many social welfare activities. Typical examples include: “Border Guard Force joins hands for the poor – no one will be left behind”, “homes for the poor in the border area”, “Border Guard Force joins hands to build new-style rural areas”, “helping children with schooling”. Units of the PBG has adopted 11 children, sponsored 73 children, cooperated with the Provincial Fatherland Front in building 6 “houses of great unity” and several public works in border districts, and given presents worth billions of VND to families under preferential treatment policy, people with meritorious services to the revolution, poor households, and children. Moreover, the PBG has brought into play its military-civilian infirmaries in providing free medical examination and treatment for thousands of citizens. Thanks to its practical deeds, the PBG succeeded in earning the faith and affection of local party committees, authorities, and people, cementing the close-knit bond between the Border Guard Force and the people, building an increasingly firm posture of people’s hearts and minds in the border area, and turning every citizen into a “living border marker” for protecting national sovereignty and border security.

In compliance with higher echelons’ resolutions and directives, the PBG’s Party Committee and Command have focused their leadership and direction on raising the quality of combat readiness and crime prevention and control. While promoting its core role in recommending policies and strategies to manage and protect national sovereignty and border security, the PBG has reviewed, adjusted, and completed combat projects, border protection plans, combat plans for protecting its offices, posts, and stations, and other plans on natural disaster and forest fire prevention and control as well as search and rescue. At the same time, it has practised those projects and plans to raise the quality of settling situations, particularly the complex, sensitive ones along the border. It has also directed its border guard posts and stations to concentrate on grasping and anticipating the situation via their specialised measures, drastically adopt measures of struggle right in the border, and proactively deal with incidents to avoid falling into passivity. Over the years, the PBG has signed and well implemented the Regulations on Coordination between 5 district-level party committees and the PBG Party Committee as well as between border communes’ party committees and border guard posts’ party committees, while formulating plans on coordination to protect joint border sections with the provincial border guards of Binh Phuoc and Long An. At the same time, it has strictly maintained regulations on combat readiness duty and enhanced patrols for managing and protecting the border as well as preventing and combating crime. At the border gates, it has stringently maintained immigration regulations and procedures, thus opportunely detecting criminal acts, creating a favourable condition for the people’s legal border crossing and the flow of goods. In response to the increasingly foxy artifices of crime of all types, the PBG has well performed the work of border defence diplomacy and regularly held meetings with the public security, military, and gendarmerie of the three Cambodian provinces. Since 2018, the PBG has organised 24 meetings, joint patrols, and delegation exchange programs with Cambodia’s border defence forces. Via those activities, the two sides have opportunely shared information about new plots and artifices of groups of criminals and proactively coordinated with each other to effectively handle hundreds of violations of law and border regulations, prevent and fight against crimes of all types according to their functions. In addition, the PBG has closely cooperated with local party committees, authorities, and relevant forces, particularly local public security, customs, and military agencies in synchronously taking measures for grasping the situation from the two sides of the border, organising joint patrols, and developing projects for protecting the border and combating exile reactionary organisations, smuggling, trade frauds, human trafficking, and drug trafficking. To achieve the effectiveness of crime prevention and control, the PBG has proactively cooperated with the public security force in frequently carrying out regular basic investigations and personal identity checks and making lists of citizens subject to special management in all border communes and townships for the sake of monitoring, management, and education.

Those above-mentioned good results have provided a solid foundation for the PBG of Tay Ninh to keep building “exemplarily, typically” comprehensively strong border guard offices, posts, and stations capable of promoting their core role in managing and firmly protecting national sovereignty and border security, thereby making contributions to building a border of peace, friendship, cooperation, and development between Viet Nam and Cambodia.

Sr. Col. LE VAN VY

Commander of the PBG