Bringing into play the obtained results, the Party Committee and Command of the Vietnam Coast Guard (VCG) have continued adopting various measures synchronously to build a revolutionary, regular, elite, modern, and highly professional VCG to meet the requirements set by law management and enforcement at sea in the new situation under the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress.
Under the guidelines on modernising the VCG, in recent years, units of the VCG Command have been sufficiently staffed and provided with modern facilities, vessels and technical equipment so that they could improve their task performance. Against the new complex developments in the East Sea in 2020 together with an increase in the seriousness of incidents, the VCG’s Party Committee and Command have proactively grasped, assessed, and correctly anticipated the situation, while giving sound advice to the Party, the State, the Central Military Commission, and the Ministry of National Defence on strategies to opportunely, flexibly, effectively deal with issues, avoid passivity, and alleviate tension at sea. Performing its task of law enforcement, the VCG has frequently deployed forces and vessels within seas, resolutely, persistently maintained struggle on the scene, and closely cooperated with other forces and local coastal authorities to promote the synergy for building the postures of national defence and security at sea, thereby significantly contributing to firmly protecting the national sovereignty over seas and islands from afar. The VCG has enhanced patrols, opportunely detected and resolutely ordered foreign vessels to leave Vietnam’s waters. It has conducted the work of propagation amongst our fishermen so that they would not violate other countries’ waters or commit illegal, unreported, unregulated fishing. Also, it has actively prevented and fought against crime, violations of law and maritime safety, marine environmental pollution, piracy, and armed robbery. Closely combining defence and security with diplomacy, the VCG has fostered international cooperation to contribute to maintaining peace and stability for our country’s development. In 2020, the VCG detected and drove hundreds of foreign vessels away from Vietnam’s waters, while identifying, investigating, and handling many large-scale, organised, and foreign-related cases of smuggling, trade fraud, and narcotic trafficking, thereby maintaining security, safety, and order at sea.
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| An anti-piracy exercise by the VCG |
Currently, the coastal countries of the East Sea are stepping up military and law enforcement operations, changing the status quo of islands, shoals, and entities within the archipelagos of Hoang Sa and Truong Sa, unilaterally issuing fishing bans, inhumanely treating fishermen at sea, and disobeying basic standards of international law, thus undermining the confidence and pushing countries in the region and the world into deeper conflicts and disagreements. At the same time, crime of various types and violations of law at sea, such as armed piracy, terrorism, narcotic and human trafficking, illegal migration, smuggling, trade fraud, and illegal fishing are witnessing complicated developments. Foreign vessels are still violating Vietnam’s territorial and internal waters.
Thoroughly grasping the viewpoints of the Party, the State, the Central Military Commission, and the Ministry of National Defence, and the VCG’s Party Congress for the 2020-2025 tenure has advocated “the building of a revolutionary, regular, elite, modern VCG as the core force in maintaining security and law enforcement at sea to make contributions to firmly defending the national sovereignty over seas and islands.” To achieve that goal, in the upcoming time, the VCG’s Party Committee and Command will focus on synchronously implementing a number of main measures as follows.
First of all, the VCG will continue grasping and anticipating the situation to opportunely advise the Party, the State, the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of National Defence on strategies to firmly protect the country’s sovereignty and benefits at sea. Grasping the Party’s guidelines and new thoughts on national protection under the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress, the VCG will attach great value to raising its capabilities in reconnaissance, research and analysis to opportunely formulate systematic, comprehensive, feasible strategies against the developments at sea. It will proactively prevent and effectively deal with situations at sea to avoid falling into passivity or letting disagreements and disputes develop into armed conflicts. In addition, due attention will be paid to reviewing, supplementing, and completing the system of combat documents, frequently practising combat projects, organising exercises, and improving the capabilities in combat readiness and law enforcement at sea in any situation. The VCG will cooperate with offices, units, competent forces, and local coastal authorities in registering, managing, and receiving personnel and civilian vessels for the defence of national sovereignty over seas and islands. It will raise the quality of its coordination with the Navy, the Border Guard Force, the Air Defence - Air Force Service, the Fisheries Resource Surveillance Force, and provincial coastal and standing militia and self-defence units to build a firm “posture of people’s hearts and minds” as the basis for the construction of the all-people national defence and the people’s security as well as for the establishment of an inter-connected, multi-layer, and multi-line defensive posture. Due regard will be paid to enhancing state management of national defence to firmly protect the country’s sea and island sovereignty, marine economic operations, fishing grounds and fishermen. The work of propagation will be widely carried out to prevent our fishermen from violating other countries’ waters. Besides, the VCG will be ready to take part in natural disaster prevention and control, search and rescue, give assistance to the people, fight against piracy and armed robbery, ensure maritime safety and security, and protect the marine environment.
Emphasis will be placed on building a revolutionary, regular, elite modern, and highly professional VCG. To that end, the VCG’s Party Committee and Command will consolidate the organisational structure in a compact, strong, professional, and modern manner, while effectively executing the Project on building the VCG in the period of 2021-2025 and beyond. Priority will be given to building and developing human resources with political zeal, deep knowledge, and professional competence, and ensuring a balance between components and forces. In the upcoming time, offices and units of the VCG will concentrate on conducting the work of political education and ideological management to build up their cadres and soldiers’ political zeal, faith, and determination to surmount difficulties, undertake and successfully fulfil all assigned tasks. To meet the increasingly high task requirements, offices and units will enhance the training of cadres and soldiers, with greater importance attached to providing them with tactical training and improving their creativity, assertiveness, adaptability, and ability to flexibly respond to situations at sea. Consideration will be given to training troops to master modern weapons and technical equipment and actively applying information technology to training, exercises, and military contests. At the same time, cadres of the VCG at all levels, particularly cadres working in vessels or those who major in international relations or law will be equipped with the knowledge of informatics and foreign languages. With reference to the force building, the VCG’s Party Committee and Command will continue to implement the policy to attract and recruit talents and graduates with distinction from academies and schools. Besides, all resources and facilities will be prepared to realise the Project on developing the Coast Guard Professional Training Centre into the Coast Guard College so as to proactively ensure high-quality, sustainable human resources and satisfy the VCG’s task requirements in the long term.
In addition to the development of human resources, the VCG’s Command will advise higher echelons on acquiring and modernising technical equipment and facilities. In the medium term, priority will be given to executing the project to build high-speed, mobile, large patrol ships capable of operating in the seas far from the coast or in harsh weather conditions. At the same time, the VCG will proactively seek and acquire specialised, modern technical equipment in accordance with function and task of each office, unit, force, and section. The VCG’s capacity to receive, exploit and master vessels from friendly countries and strategic partners will be increased. The VCG will continue constructing and upgrading its technical facilities, renewing the method of technical support, and effectively applying technological transfer, particularly for new weapons and technical equipment to facilitate the modernisation process. Due regard will be paid to selecting and upgrading old-fashioned weapons and technical equipment in sync with the new-generation materiel. The VCG will proactively cooperate with competent offices in expanding the barracks of newly-founded units and opportunely providing financial support for constructing facilities, ports, depots, and stations under the roadmap for the Project on building the VCG in the period of 2021-2025.
Grasping the guidelines by our Party and State on the management, protection, and sustainable development of Vietnam’s marine economy, the VCG will keep devoting effort to making itself “revolutionary, regular, seasoned, modern, highly professional,” and capable of playing the core role in enforcing law and maintaining national security, order and safety within Vietnam’s seas.
Lt. Gen. NGUYEN VAN SON, PhD, Commander of the VCG