Viet Nam People’s Army (VPA) is a revolutionary force, of the people, by the people, for the people and founded, educated, and trained by the Party and President Ho Chi Minh. In each stage of revolution, our Party always puts forth objectives and directions for building the VPA to satisfy demands of strengthening national defence and safeguarding the Homeland in any situation. The 13^th Party National Congress continues to advocate building a revolutionary, regular, highly skilled, gradually modernised military and achieving an adept, compact, strong force by 2025 to create a firm premise for striving to build a modernised military from 2030 onwards. This is a consistent, sound guideline, which demonstrates the strategic vision of the Party and serves as a basis for the Military Central Commission (CMC) and Ministry of National Defence (MND) to lead the building of a comprehensively strong military, truly becoming a combat force absolutely faithful to the Party, State, and people and pre-eminent violent means to protect the Homeland, Party, State, people, and socialist regime, successfully completing its functions and assigned missions.

On deeply grasping the Conclusion No. 16-KL/TW and Resolution No. 15-NQ/TW of the Politburo, in recent years, the CMC and MND have concentrated on leading concurrent adoption of various solutions aimed to build an adept, compact, strong, highly mobile military and gained initial important outcomes. In coming years, international and regional situations are likely to witness rapid, complex, unforeseeable developments. Peace, cooperation, and development remain the mainstream, but basic discord of the age continues to exist and evolve. Strategic competition among major powers, local conflicts, territorial disputes, ethnic conflicts, etc., occur in more complex, fierce forms and scales, along with the emergence of many new types of warfare. The world continues to shift towards a multipolar, multicentric order. Major powers cooperate, compromise, and contain one another at the same time. They are ready to interfere into internal affairs of other countries. Traditional and nontraditional security issues, especially cybersecurity, cyber safety, terrorism, crimes, natural disasters, epidemics, pandemics, etc., continue to take place in a more complex direction. The Asia-Pacific region witnesses further dynamic developments as well as many factors potentially leading to instability. Strategic rivalry among major powers remains fierce. Dispute over territories, seas, and islands occur in a complex fashion. After 35 years of reform, our position and force are increasingly strengthened. The position and reputation of the country in the international arena are further increased in the new period. Nevertheless, our country still confronts many difficulties, challenges, and complex developments. Hostile forces, reactionaries, and political opportunists both at home and abroad collude with each other to speed up acts of “peaceful evolution” and incite “self-evolution,” “self-transformation,” depoliticisation of the VPA, etc., by increasingly public, direct plots and tricks. The above-mentioned situation has a profound influence on the cause of building the VPA, consolidating national defence, safeguarding the Homeland, particularly the guideline of building a revolutionary, regular, highly skilled, gradually modernised military. On the basis of deeply grasping the direction of building the VPA set forth in the Resolution of the 13^th Party Congress and Resolution of the 11^th Military Party Congress, party committees and commanders at all levels in the military need to perceive and strictly implement the following fundamental solutions.

First, remaining consistent in the principle of making the VPA politically strong and imbued with revolutionary nature, laying the foundation for promoting its overall quality and combat power. Given the increased demands of strengthening national defence and protecting the Homeland, further attention must be paid to building the VPA in terms of politics in order to lay out proper, effective methods of leadership. To complete this task requires focusing on making the Military Party Committee pure, robust, representative in politics, thought, morality, organisation, and cadres and ceaselessly enhancing its leadership and combat strength to ensure the Party’s absolute, direct leadership of the military in every aspect. Party committees and organisations in the VPA must pay regular attention to political education, ideological leadership, comprehension of missions, cultivation of strong motives and determination in task performance. They also need to devote attention to building the corps of cadres at all levels, especially those at the operational, strategic levels, to become strong with proper quantity and structure, increased quality, capable of playing the key, prominent role in carrying out the VPA’s activities. Inspection and supervision work must be done effectively and concentrated on manifestations of deterioration in political ideology, morality, and lifestyle, “self-evolution,” “self-transformation,” poor performance of tasks, etc., contributing to strict maintenance of Party discipline. Party committees and organisations need to firmly protect internal security and proactively prevent and defeat hostile forces’ schemes and acts of violating military security, national security, and other kinds of crimes. Mass mobilisation must be closely led through creative, practical models and ways, contributing to making the qualities of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers” forever shine and cementing the strong civil-military bonds. Enhancing efficiency and effectiveness of party work and political work in all missions is truly the “soul, lifeline” of the VPA.

Sr. Lt. Gen Giang briefing the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress on national defence issues

Second, further adopting synchronous, drastic solutions to building of an “adept, compact, strong” military. In the coming time, the entire military needs to make more efforts to put the Resolution of the 13^th National Party Congress into daily life. To fulfil this task requires the CMC, MND, party committees and commanders at all levels in the entire military to strengthen leadership, direct the adoption of drastic, synchronous solutions, and closely combine organisational work with ideological work, cadre work, and policy work. First of all, it is necessary to focus on fulfiling the goals set out in the Conclusion No. 16-KL/TW of the Politburo; take initiative in studying, developing, and effectively implementing the Project on organising Viet Nam People’s Army in the new situation, which lays a solid foundation for building the VPA to become a revolutionary, regular, highly-skilled, modernised force from 2030 onwards. There needs to continue to reorganise some departments and units as planned, strictly manage the recruitment of new personnel, and resolutely address the issue of redundancy according to promulgated tables of organisation and staffing, ensuring nonincreasing strength in the entire military. Reduction in strength must go hand in hand with making the VPA highly mobile and keeping a balance between the main force’s combat units and combat support units as well as between the permanent force, the Reserve, Militia and Self-Defence Force. The robust Reserve is built to become part of the VPA and an important force contributing to the building the all-people national defence and all-people national defence posture. The Reserve is ready to supplement the active force when required. The Militia and Self-Defence Force is built in the direction of robustness and extensiveness, organised and staffed properly to meet national defence requirements and missions, and well connected with areas and missions of localities, bodies, and organisations.

Third, ceaselessly reforming and enhancing quality of training, combat readiness, drilling, education, and training to meet requirements and missions in any situations. The entire military continues to make breakthroughs in reform and promoting quality of training and drilling according to the Resolution No. 765-NQ/QUTW of the CMC and under the “basic, practical, solid” motto. Special importance is attached to synchronous, in-depth, close-to-combat training, night-time training, weapon handling training, especially the new, modern weapons and equipment; combining military training with political education and physical training with a view to promoting soldiers’ political steadfastness, determination, and mobility in any conditions and circumstances; combining training with prevention and response to the Covid-19 pandemics, natural disasters, ecological disasters, and strict compliance with safety regulations in training and drilling. On realising the theme of the year 2021 “Enhancing quality, effectiveness of drilling, competition at home, in the region and the world,” the entire military seriously conducts exercises at different levels and defensive zone exercises, ensuring closeness, effectiveness, safety, and close-to-combat training with the aim of making soldiers skilled in basic movements, scenarios, coordination in operations, and quality of using weapons and equipment. Military schools need to achieve breakthroughs in education and training of military human resources, especially the high-quality ones. They are also required to further develop and improve training management mechanisms in the direction of “Concentration, unity, synchronicity, effectiveness, without overlap,” which serves to create a solid foundation for promoting quality of education, training, and research in military science and technology. The corps of lecturers and education management cadres are built to ensure sufficiency in terms of quantity, proper structure, and increased quality. They are requested to speed up research in military science and technology, continually enrich their knowledge, thinking capacity, pedagogical skills, and experience. The corps of lecturers and scientists are cultivated in both theory and practice with a focus on developing spirit, command methods and styles. There are policies to attract talented people to academies, colleges, and schools. Training processes, programmes, and contents are actively renewed in the standardised, modernised direction suited to each type of learners and level of learning, close to reality of training, combat readiness, and requirements for building the VPA in the new situation. It is necessary to focus on building some academies and colleges according to the model of “Smart schools, approach to the Fourth Industrial Revolution”; promote the quality of training support to satisfy requirements of “science, effectiveness, timeliness.”

Fourth, promoting good order and discipline to bring about comprehensive, solid changes in compliance with military discipline and State law. Promoting good order and discipline is key to generating overall quality and combat strength of our military. This is a broad concept, which covers a wide range of topics and relates to all military personnel, thus requiring departments and units to further grasp resolutions, directives, and instructions of the CMC, MND, and General Staff as well as documents concerning promoting good order and discipline, experience drawn from reality of command and management of soldiers in order to work out suitable measures. In the forthcoming time, the entire military is requested to continue to successfully conduct education with the aim to develop cadres’ and soldiers’ motives, determination, and self-awareness in conforming to regulations, rules, and instructions. Political, legal education is combined with imposing administrative measures and punishment of violations. It also needs to regular review and evaluate situations, results of promoting good order and discipline in departments and units in order to draw experience from reality of leadership, command, punishment of violations, maintemance of good order and discipline. It is necessary to maintain working regulations, strengthen measures to control military personnel’s social relations; cultivate the corps of cadres, especially those at detachment level, in order to equip them with sufficient qualities and capabilities to command, control, and educate soldiers. There needs to successfully carry out regulations on cadres’ and party members’ responsibility for setting good examples; bring into play overall power of organisations and forces in promoting good order and discipline and management of soldiers’ thought; timely detect and deal with wrongdoings right from grassroots level; combine the building of comprehensively strong, “exemplary, representative” units with making party organisations pure, strong and caring for soldiers’ material, spiritual life. Special importance is attached to developing healthy military cultural environments while proactively preventing and addressing negative effects and harmful culture. Additionally, logistical, technical work, the two vital elements in building the VPA today, needs to be done well, thereby providing good support for training, combat readiness, building of units, and improving soldiers’ material, spiritual life.

Fifth, establishing and developing a modern, dual use defence industry, capable of both fulfilling national defence requirement and contributing to socio-economic development. Military modernisation in the new situation requires speeding up the development of defence industry with a view to creating advanced, modern technical infrastructure. Therefore, the defence industry is to be built and developed in the self-reliant, resilient, dual-use, progressively modern direction with advanced scientific and technical levels of strategic significance to the cause of building the gradually modernised VPA, contributing to successfully carrying out the guideline on “combining national defence, security with economy and vice versa.” The implementation of the Resolution No. 06-NQ/TW, dated 16 July 2011, of the Politburo on “Building and developing the defence industry through 2020 and beyond” needs to be summed up in a close, effective manner, which lays the foundation for proposing sound policies and solutions to development of the defence industry in line with Viet Nam National Defence Strategy, Viet Nam Military Strategy, and requirements for building a strong all-people national defence and a modern military in the new period for the Party and State. More effort should be made in accomplishing particular plans and mechanisms to implement programmes and projects relating to defence industry as identified. There needs to continually enhance quality of research, development of prototypes, production, repair while attachinng importance to atracting high-quality human resources; stepping up scientific research; promoting unity, creativeness, and close collaboration among levels, sectors inside and outside the military. International cooperation with advanced defence industries continues to be deepened to ensure that Viet Nam’s defence industry achieves modern, dual-use requirements; becomes a key element and combines closely with the national industry.

Setting the goal of basically fulfilling the building of an adept, compact, powerful military by 2025, which serves to create firm premises for building the VPA into modernity from 2030 onwards, is a sound, consistent policy displaying the strategic thinking and vision of our Party and State. Completion of these guidelines will enable our military to successfully play its core role in strengthening national defence and firmly protecting the Vietnamese socialist Homeland. This is the responsibility of the whole Party, people, and political system, first and foremost party committees, commanders at all levels, cadres, and soldiers in the entire military.

Senior Lieutenant General Phan Van Giang, Member of the Politburo, Deputy Secretary of the Central Military Commission, Minister of National Defence