On January 30,2023, the Politburo (13^th tenure) issued Resolution No. 36-NQ/TW on the development and application of biotechnology for the sustainable development of the country in the new situation”. As the standing body of the Vietnam Head Agency on the prevention and nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction including biological one, the Chemical Corps has synchronously implemented many solutions to put the Resolution into life.

Right after the issue of Resolution No. 36-NQ/TW, dated 30/01/2023 by the Politburo (13^th tenure), the Chemical Corps' Party Committee and Command have fully comprehended and grasped all policies, targets, missions and solutions of the Resolution; at the same time, defined the main contents and solutions to lead and direct in their implementation process. In particular, one of the main tasks which has been mentioned in the Resolution and defined by the Corps includes the issue of “Actively dealing with situations of biological terrorism, biological warfare; chemical decontamination; assurance of biological security in researches, manufactures and manufacturing biological technology  products for defence and security purposes to meet demands for safeguarding the Homeland in the new situation”. This is because the effective implementation of this task would contribute to the assurance of national security, economic political stability, peace, sustainable development, defence reinforcement and the Homeland protection from the afar. In order to achieve these targets, the Corps' Party Committee and Command need to focus their leadership and direction on synchronously implementing the following contents and solutions:

Firstly, improve the quality of education, propaganda and dissemination of the knowledge on dealing with situations of biological terrorism and biological warfare. In reality, the situations of biological terrorism and  biological warfare, which have hardly happened, have been considered dangerous and caused unforeseen consequences to the society. As a result, offices and units need to enhance their education, propaganda and improvement of cadres and soldiers’ awareness and responsibility for dealing with situations of biological terrorism and biological warfare so that they can be fully aware of the meaning and importance of this task, and regard it as the chemical soldiers’ “fighting task in peaceful time”. To make it effective, offices and units need to actively renovate the education with many contents and plentiful solutions, bring into play the roles of party cells, public unions, exemplary roles of cadres and party members, and well accomplish the summaries and commendation for the excellent examples in each unit.

Dealing with situations of biological terrorism and biological warfare is a new, difficult and complicated mission which relates to not only ministries, agencies, localities in a country, but also other countries, territories, international organisations, etc. This requires all units to closely cooperate with functional offices of ministries, agencies and localities to well carry out the propaganda, timely and accurately report the biological agents, timely orient the public opinion among cadres, party members and people. It is essential to prevent the objective thought and actions, but not to be worried, also classify and eradicate distorted information by the hostile, reactionary and opportunist forces who are taking advantage of the complex situation to oppose the country, especially in the cyberspace.

Responding to chemical incident in the DM 20 exercise

Secondly, continue to give advice and proposals to the Ministry of Defence and the Government to build and complete the laws, structure and policies on the prevention and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, dealing with situations of biological terrorism. This is a basis core content because the legal documents related to the prevention and non-proliferation of biological weapons are limited and asynchronous; Resolution No. 36 is the first document by the Politburo on the full orientation of the development of biotechnology for the country’s development in the new era, including the part on dealing with  biological warfare. As a result, it is necessary to institutionalise the law system to effectively deal with situations of biological terrorism and biological warfare. In order to carry out this content, together with enhancing the research, making proposals to the Ministry of National Defence and Government on implementing the international treaties, the Corps needs to actively cooperate with other agencies and functional offices to inspect the legal documents, contemporary policies, define the ones which need issuing and repairing and implement synchronously and effectively other important contents. In particular, it needs to give more focus on building regulations, rules, policies, solutions, forces, vehicles, responsibility of other offices, organisations and individuals in preventing the biological agents and wars using biological weapons.

Thirdly, frequently research, accurately forecast the biological security in the world, make advice and proposals to the Ministry of National Defence on the fast, timely and accurate dealing solutions. Accurately researching, forecasting and rightly evaluating the development of the mass destruction weapons is one of the issues of special importance in making advice and proposals of dealing solutions and in building and developing the forces, weapons, equipment, training and operational plans of the Corps. Accordingly, the Corps needs to actively cooperate with other offices and units within and beyond the Army to make researches and hold the situations of biological security, especially the biological agents and material related to biological weapons; enhance the supervision and closely hold the research and development of biological agents, and the use of biological weapons, etc. On that basis, the Corps actively advises the Central Military Commission, Ministry of National Defence about solutions for preventing and dealing with situations of non-traditional security triggered by the biological agents which can cause diseases for humans at large scale or the terrorist activities and riots using biological agents, such as organising the civilian defence systems on dealing with infectious diseases and the military exercises at different scales. On grasping and implementing Resolution No. 1656-NQ/QUTW, dated 20/12/2022 by the Central Military Commission on “leading the technical work to 2020 and the following years”, the Corps has enhanced its researches and manufacture of facilities, materials, chemical substances, individual and collective protection and solutions for fast discovering types of viruses; developed systems of warnings from afar, and built scenarios for dealing with biological usage and biological agents at different scales and levels inside and outside the Military.

Fourthly, actively build the strong forces and powerful equipment, assure the readiness in dealing with the use of biological weapons and biological agents. Presently, the forces and vehicles dealing with situations of biological terrorism and wars using biological weapons are inadequate, with few facilities and cadres of unequal qualifications, etc. In order to meet the mission requirements, the Corps’ Party Committee and Command particularly focuses on building and organising the specialised chemical forces which are elite, strong, compact and have combat capability and high mobility to meet demands for preventing the chemical, biological and radiological terrorists in all situations. Among them, it is necessary to build the specialised anti-terrorism chemical forces which are suitable with the Corps’ functions and responsibilities, assured with the synchronicity, major points and focuses and equipped with specialised and advanced vehicles for timely reconnaissance, detection and treatment of all situations related to chemical, biological and radiological agents. The Corps' Party Committee and Command continue to grasp and strictly implement the resolutions by the Central Military Commission on improving the quality of education and training, well making the preparation and organising trainings closely and practically with the reality, making sure the ability of accomplishing all assigned missions, at the same time, build plans, projects and prepare all resources; frequently organise the exercises on preventing the use of biological weapons, biological agents in order to improve the ability of leadership and direction, the skill of practice and coordination among forces and the skills for cadres who are implementing the missions on the prevention and non-proliferation of biological weapons.

Fifthly, strengthen international cooperation and closely cooperate with ministries, agencies and localities in the prevention and non-proliferation of biological weapons, biological warfare. This is also an important solution in order to take advantage of the assistance of both materials and equipment and the experience in leadership and direction from developed countries in the world. As a result, the Corps needs to enhance the exchange of information related to biological security in particular, the responses to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear accidents in general, strengthen the cooperation within the worldwide monitoring network of biological security, especially strengthen the network of ASEAN  chemical, biological and radiological defence experts. In particular, it needs to strengthen the cooperation on forecast, warning, using facilities and regulations of cooperative activities; research and transfer new and valuable technology of the world to Viet Nam, simultaneously, actively attend the exercises and trainings on the prevention and non-proliferation of biological weapons and biological warfare in the region in order to make exchanges, learn from experience and improve the skills of organising, leading and dealing with all situations.

The prevention and non-proliferation of biological weapons and biological warfare is a long-term, difficult and complicated task, impacting on all fields of the social life. As a result, the Chemical Corps  has to closely cooperate with other levels, agencies, forces and localities to create the overall strength in implementing their missions. The Corps has actively signed all documents on building and implementing plans of dealing with on-going chemical, biological and radiological situations and environmental disasters; advised the local governments at all levels, enhanced the propaganda and education for people on chemical and radiological dangers and chemical accidents in peaceful time; built on the spot chemical, biological and radiological  search and rescue forces, the solutions and process of dealing with accidents in the localities; cooperated with functional offices to guide and check the organisations and staff of chemical offices and units in the Military in accordance with the regulations from the General Staff, which are doing their missions of dealing with chemical, biological, radiological accidents and the prevention and non-proliferation of biological weapons and biological warfare.

Major General HA VAN CU, Commander of the Chemical Corps