To meet the requirements set by the building and protection of the Homeland and the capital city in the new situation, especially amidst the complex developments of COVID-19, the capital armed forces have been devoting every effort and playing their core role to successfully fulfil all functions and assigned tasks and make contributions to maintaining political stability, protecting the capital city, and building an increasingly prosperous, civilised, modern Hanoi.

Hanoi serves as the political and administrative nerve centre of Vietnam, a major centre for cultural, scientific, educational, economic, and international trade activities, and an area of strategic importance to national defence and security. Although it has a lot of advantages thanks to its geographic position and political status, Hanoi is confronted with a large number of difficulties and challenges relating to urban security and social order; it is also faced with the increasingly complex developments of COVID-19 and hostile forces’ drastic sabotage.

Being fully aware of Hanoi’s position and the Party’s military-defence guidelines, in recent years, the capital armed forces have well promoted their core role in military-defence work. They have proactively grasped and correctly anticipated situations to assist the Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal People’s Committee in issuing documents on leading and directing military-defence work, with a focus on the building of the all-people national defence and defensive zones and state management of national defence, while cooperating with the city’s departments, committees, and sectors in effectively performing this important work. Due attention has been paid to managing defence land, providing defence and security education, selecting and recruiting citizens to the Military, adjusting units’ organisational structure, organising training courses and exercises, and maintaining coordination to protect significant political events of the country and the capital city in accordance with each degree of COVID-19. As a result, all-level party committees and authorities’ efficiency and effectiveness of leading, directing, managing, and operating military-defence work have been gradually improved; the armed forces’ synergy and combat readiness have been increasingly raised to meet the task requirements in any situation.

Inspecting the capital armed forces’ combat readiness to safeguard the 13th National Party Congress

In the upcoming time, more requirements will be imposed on the defence of the Homeland and the capital city. Meanwhile, COVID-19 pandemic will continue to be complex. Hostile forces will enhance their plots and artifices. That necessitates the capital armed forces strengthening solidarity, promoting their synergy, and synchronously, drastically adopting measures to raise the quality and effectiveness of military-defence work, with emphasis placed on the following.

First, better counsel, guide, and implement military-defence tasks. Grounded on the Party’s military-defence guidelines and the assigned missions, the Capital Military Command (CMC) of Hanoi and local military offices should continue advising the Municipal Party Committee, the Municipal People’s Committee, and all-level party committees and authorities to promulgate documents on renewing methods of leading, directing, managing, and operating military-defence work in the new situation, with consideration given to concretising higher echelons’ resolutions and directives into their action plans and programmes. At the same time, great value should be attached to grasping and effectively employing higher echelons’ resolutions, strategies, and projects on military-defence work and the Homeland protection to advise the Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal People’s Committee to design guidelines and measures for the building of the armed forces, the building and operation of defensive zones, as well as the building of all-people national defence potential and posture. Due regard should be paid to giving advice on promulgating documents on targets of military call-up, training, and mobilisation, documents on organising exercises on defensive combat, natural disaster prevention and control, and search and rescue (for 9 districts and 2 departments in 2022) as well as projects to respond to each degree of COVID-19. It is necessary to review, supplement, and complete legal normative documents on each sector and locality’s functions, tasks, and authority, promote the role of all-level steering boards and councils in performing military-defence tasks, and align the outcome of military-defence work with the performance of political missions by party committees, commanders, and heads of offices, sectors, and localities.

Additionally, all-level military offices should continue closely collaborating with the Public Security Force under the Government 03/2019/NĐ-CP in grasping, anticipating, and correctly evaluating situations to give advice to all-level party committees and authorities on strategies to successfully deal with defence-security issues and avoid falling into passivity, while helping the city’s departments, committees, sectors, and localities to flexibly, effectively organise military-defence activities in accordance with COVID-19 pandemic.

Second, enhance defence and security education to raise all citizens’ awareness and responsibility towards military-defence tasks. Under higher echelons’ direction and guidance and based on each locality’s practical conditions, all-level Defence and Security Education Councils should encourage their role in developing plans to direct and organise defence and security education for localities, offices, and organisations closely, scientifically in accordance with tasks of each group of learners. It is essential to review and classify groups of learners, launch classes of defence and security education at all levels, and closely evaluate the outcome of this work. Importance should be attached to providing defence and security education for village heads, party cell secretaries, commune-level military cadres, and key officials of the city’s departments, committees, sectors, universities, and colleges. Focuses of defence and security education should be placed on rendering learners fully aware of the military-defence guidelines set by the Party, the Central Military Commission, and the Ministry of National Defence, resolutions and directives by the Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal People’s Committee, the building and protection of the capital city, the building of the all-people national defence, the combination of economic development and defence-security consolidation, and hostile forces’ plots and artifices. Due attention should be paid to actively, practically, effectively renewing forms and methods of defence and security education, intensifying measures to disseminate knowledge of defence and security, and combining defence and security education with law propagation and dissemination. Doing will help make a huge positive change in all sectors, forces, and people’s responsibility for performing military-defence tasks in the new normal.

Infantry Division 301 on combat readiness duty

Third, focus on making the capital armed forces strong and capable of playing a core role in performing military-defence tasks. Grounded on the Politburo’s Resolution 05-NQ/TW on the organisation of the Vietnam People’s Army in the period of 2021-2030 and beyond, the CMC should continue encouraging its role in implementing measures to make the capital armed forces “exemplarily, typically” comprehensively strong with a high level of synergy and combat readiness to successfully fulfil all assigned missions. Emphasis should be placed on building a “revolutionary, regular, elite, gradually modern” standing force with absolute loyalty to the Party, the State, and the people, actively adjusting its organisational structure in a compact, strong fashion, sufficiently staffing standing units tasked with combat readiness, and acquiring modern weapons and equipment for a number of units assigned to perform special missions. It is vital to continue improving the quality of training and exercises in accordance with military-defence tasks, natural disaster and epidemic prevention and control, search and rescue, stringently maintain personnel and means for combat readiness, safeguard significant political events of the country and the city, and firmly protect Hanoi in any situation. Besides, it is necessary to build a “strong, extensive” militia and self-defence force in accordance with the task requirements and practical conditions of localities, organisations, and enterprises. Due regard should be paid to renewing the militia and self-defence force’s organisational structure, training courses, and operation and ensuring policies and entitlements for this force under Resolution 61/NQ-HĐND, dated September 23^rd, 2021 by the Municipal People’s Council. Significance should be attached to building effective standing militia units at district level and strong self-defence units within enterprises so that they could bring into play their core role in maintaining political security and social order and safety in the city’s areas. Moreover, it is essential to build a powerful reserve force both qualitatively and quantitatively to readily reinforce the standing force in the event.

Fourth, make all-level defensive zones increasingly strong as the basis for increasing the all-people national defence potential and posture within the capital city. To that end, it is necessary to grasp and effectively execute the Politburo’s Resolution 28/NQTW and the Government’s Decree 21/NĐ-CP on building defensive zones in line with the Municipal Party Committee’s Programme 09-CTr/TU, dated March 17^th, 2021 on strengthening defence-security potential in the period of 2021-2025. Great weight should be added to implementing the Project on “enhancing planning work and management and raising the efficiency and effectiveness of natural resource management and use,” completing the Planning of military-defence and defence industry constructions and the Planning of defence land use in the period of 2021-2030, making plans on district-level military posture, constructing campaign-level key positions and dual-purpose works, and intensifying measures to increase defensive zones’ potential and strength. Due attention should be paid to cooperating with the city’s competent offices and localities in completely handling zones that overlap defence land designed for military training and exercises, applying information technology to managing military terrain changes, particularly within industrial zones, urban areas, and infrastructure works. Last but not least, the CMC should proactively consolidate the armed forces’ organisational structure, raise the efficiency of all-level steering boards on defensive zones and supply councils, actively formulate, activate, and well employ civil defence plans at all levels, and closely cooperate with other forces to opportunely, effectively respond to natural disasters, incidents, and epidemics as the basis for developing a “green, civilised, smart, modern” capital city.

Maj. Gen. NGUYEN QUOC DUYET, Member of the Municipal Party Committee Standing Board, Commander of the CMC