The policy of protecting the Fatherland "early and from afar" reflects the Party's strategic thinking, vision, initiative and creativity in the cause of national construction and defence. This point of view needs to be further grasped and effectively implemented in practice, contributing to firmly defending the socialist Vietnam Fatherland.

The Party's view of protecting the Fatherland "early and from afar" is the inheritance of the lesson and strategy of "defending the country since it is not in danger" of our ancestors in the history of national construction and defence. This view is the sum of all ideas and actions of the Party, State and People that take place in advance, in order to early detect, prevent, repel and eliminate subversive plots and acts against the regime, infringing upon the sovereignty, territory and interests of the nation; keep the country from passivity and surprise; maintain a peaceful and stable environment to develop the country according to Socialist orientation. The Party's strategic thinking on Fatherland protection "early and from afar" includes many contents, focusing on a few basic issues as follows:

1. Actively grasp, research, analyse and accurately forecast the world, regional and domestic situations

This is the most important content, the scientific basis for the Party and State to plan lines and policies on defence, security, foreign affairs and Fatherland protection. In the context of complicated developments in the world and the region, with potential risks of instability and unpredictability, it is necessary to "improve the capacity of forecasting, strategic advice; proactively grasp the situation, timely detect and fight to defeat all subversive plots and activities of hostile and reactionary forces..." to "contribute to maintaining political and social stability, create a peaceful and stable environment, security and safety for effectively serving the tasks of economic, cultural and social development and expanding the country's foreign relations”. This point of view, not only demonstrates the Party's intelligence, strategic vision, and sharpness in the field of national defence and security, but also represents one of the breakthroughs in thinking and awareness about the task of Fatherland protection in the conditions of deep and profound globalisation and international integration. Accordingly, the strategic advisory agencies of the Ministry of National Defence should closely coordinate with relevant ministries, branches, localities and forces to synchronously implement measures to improve the quality of grasping, researching and forecasting the strategic situation, focusing on the moves and changes in the strategies of security, defence, and foreign affairs, etc. of major powers and neighbouring countries; promptly detect, fight, prevent, repel and defeat all sabotage schemes of hostile forces both inside and outside the border, and firmly defend the Fatherland, the Party, the State, the People and the socialist regime; actively participate in protecting regional and world peace.

2. Build strong defence potentials, forces and posture

The 13^th Congress of the Party clearly stated: "Strengthening defence and security potentials, building the People's Army... revolutionary, regular, elite, increasingly modernised, with some forces being developed straight to modernity, creating a solid premise for building the People's Army... revolutionary, regular, elite and modern by 2030". Focus on “building up a large and increasingly high quality reserve force; building a strong and widespread militia and self-defence force with an appropriate number, attaching importance to the maritime militia and self-defence militia in key areas. At the same time, "to organise and implement synchronously and unify the socio-economic development with the building of the all-people national defence, the all-people defence posture in association with the people's security posture".

Good implementation of this content requires the entire Party, people, army and political system to continue building strong political - spiritual, economic, military, scientific – technological potentials and strong foreign policy, fully and timely serving the task of defending the Fatherland in peacetime and ready to mobilise for war. Combine economic, cultural, social and external development with defence and security consolidation and between national defence and security with economy, culture, society and foreign affairs; building solid economic, defence, and technical infrastructure, etc., improving the operational efficiency of the economic - defence zones, focusing on strategic and key areas in defence and security, border, sea, island. Continue to build and improve the strength of the armed forces, ensuring that these forces acquire high overall quality and combat power and play the key role in building the all-people national defence associated with people's security; closely coordinate with elements and forces in the region to firmly defend the territory and border sovereignty on land, in the air and at sea, and protect security, order and social safety at grassroots level. Regularly consolidate, build and strongly promote "the people’s heart and mind posture" in the all-people defence and people's security; firmly build and consolidate the all-people defence posture in association with the people's security posture in each locality and throughout the whole country.

3. Promoting synergy to defend the Fatherland "early and from afar"

The Party's thinking on promoting synergy to protect the Fatherland was emphasised by the 13^th National Congress: "To bring into full play the synergy of the entire nation, the whole political system combined with the strength of the times, make the most of the consensus and support of the international community to firmly defend the independence, sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of the Fatherland…”. This is a feature in the tradition of national constructions and defence of the country, the basic point of view of our Party and State, in order to mobilise, gather and bring into full play the power of political, spiritual, ideological, cultural, defence, security, economic and foreign affairs factors; the strength from the great unity of the whole people and the whole political system for creating the synergy to firmly defend the Fatherland in all situations. It is also the close combination of internal strength with external strength, national strength with the strength of the times, taking full advantage of the consensus and support of the international community. Promote the role of press agencies and media to propagate widely and continuously so that the world's people and overseas Vietnamese can clearly understand, properly understand, and fully understand Vietnam, thereby support, share, help and create synergy to protect the Fatherland.

4. The method of protecting the Fatherland "early and  from afar"

Our Party has determined that: “Have plans to prevent the risks of wars and conflicts early and from afar. Strive to prevent conflicts, etc. Resolutely and persistently struggle to firmly protect independence, sovereignty, unification, territorial integrity, airspace and sea; maintain a peaceful and stable environment for development”. First of all, it is necessary to strengthen the leadership and direction of the party committees and commanders of agencies and units of the armed forces and the Party committees and authorities from the central to local levels for the task of protecting the Fatherland; focus on perfecting and promoting the effectiveness of the legal system, mechanisms and policies on national defence and security. Continue to comprehensively and synchronously implement the National Defence Strategy, the Military Strategy, and Strategy for National Security Protection, the Strategy for National Defence on cyberspace, the Strategy for National Cyber-security and other specialised defence and security strategies. Actively research, develop programs, plans, and compile a system of documents for briefing and implementing the contents of strategies and documents of the 13^th National Party Congress, ensuring suitability for each level, each branch, each locality, and each object.

5. Promote foreign affairs to contribute to firmly defending the Fatherland

The 13^th Party Congress emphasised that: "Continuing to promote the pioneering role of foreign affairs in creating and maintaining a peaceful and stable environment, making the most of external resources to develop the country and improve the position and prestige of the country”. For the first time, our Party clearly stated that foreign policy consists of three pillars: Party diplomacy, State diplomacy, and people's diplomacy. These are the three central external channels - the core forces in the diplomatic front, leveraging international support both materially and spiritually in the cause of national liberation struggle in the past and improving the prestige and position of Vietnam in the international arena in the process of national construction and renovation today.

Defence diplomacy is an important part of national diplomacy. Our Party determines: Taking defence diplomacy as an important tool to settle disputes, protect sovereignty and interests of the nation; create a political advantage in all fluctuations of the situation, contributing to peace and stability of the region. The objective of defence diplomacy is to establish and develop defence relations with all countries on the basis of equality and mutual respect, in order to mobilise external resources for defence and security consolidation, building the armed forces, maintaining a peaceful environment, creating favourable conditions for the cause of national construction, renewal, and Fatherland protection. The new point about the task of defence diplomacy of the 13^th National Congress is, "promoting and deepening bilateral cooperation with partners, especially strategic partners, comprehensive partners and other important partners, creating the interplay of interest and increasing reliability. Actively participate in multilateral defence and security mechanisms according to the new thinking on national defence.

Good implementation of these contents is to realise the objective of firmly defending the Fatherland without having to wage war, and to realise the Party and State's ideal that the ultimate defence is the one without war.

Major General, PhD. LE VAN HAI, National Defence Academy