With a coastline of nearly 89 kilometres and the island district of Hoang Sa, Da Nang City acts a sea gateway of strategic importance to our country. Hence, Municipal Border Guard (MBG) of Da Nang has always grasped viewpoints and guidelines by the Party, the Central Military Commission, the Ministry of National Defence, the Municipal Party Committee, and the Municipal People’s Committee, while encouraging its core role in protecting national sovereignty over the sea of its responsibility.

Over the years, the situation in the East Sea has become more complex. Major powers have intensified tensions via sea bans, military exercises, and illegal construction of islands. On a yearly basis, hundreds of foreign fishing vessels, escorted by military, marine surveillance, and coastal militia ships enter our waters to illegally explore our natural resources, encroach upon our fishing grounds, exploit our aquatic resources, and repel our fishing vessels, thereby causing a lot of difficulties for the defence of our national sovereignty, fishermen’s safety, and economic activities at sea.

Against such a backdrop, grasping and seriously following leadership and direction of the Border Guard Force, the Municipal Party Committee, and the Municipal People’s Committee, the MBG has closely cooperated with departments, committees, unions, and localities in enhancing the work of propagation to raise cadres and citizens’ awareness of our country’s sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdictions at sea as well as our Party and State’s viewpoints and guidelines on the East Sea. Great value has been attached to increasing vigilance against conspiracies to violate our country’s border and territorial sovereignty by other nations and hostile forces. The MBG has actively encouraged fishermen to determinedly maintain fishing grounds, proactively take part in protecting national sovereignty over seas and islands, and avoid violating other countries’ waters or international law during their fishing operations in international seas.

The MBG has collaborated with sectors, authorities, and localities in well implementing the Project on “enhancing legal dissemination and education for cadres and citizens in the border, sea, island areas” via various measures. In this regard, importance has been attached to including the work of legal propagation in meetings of residential areas and vessel groups and combining this work with activities of local authorities and unions. The MBG Command has promoted the core role of its stations and forces in charge of mass mobilisation in stepping up propagation via mass media, on Da Nang Newspaper’s specialised column of Border Guard, and on Da Nang Radio and Television Station’s programme entitled “For Border Security.” It has worked with Da Nang University and the Department of Education and Training to give advice to the Municipal People’s Committee on including the Strategy for National Border Protection in students’ extra-curricular programmes, thus making contributions to raising offices, units, and citizens’ awareness and responsibility for building, managing, and defending national border.

Cadres of the MBG introducing regulations on fishing to fishermen

The complex developments in the East Sea have posed more serious challenges to managing and protecting our marine border. As the specialised force in defending national sovereignty over marine border, the MBG has proactively cooperated with competent forces in advising the Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal People’s Committee on well handling issues relating to our country’s sovereignty, sovereign rights, territorial integrity, and benefits at sea. It has proactively detected and opportunely, effectively prevented enemies’ operations and crimes of various types, while driving away foreign vessels with violations of Vietnam’s waters under our country’s law and international practices, thereby making contributions to building firm postures of all-people border defence and “people’s hearts and minds” in association with socio-economic development and defence-security consolidation within localities. It has grasped and correctly anticipated issues to opportunely give advice to the Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal People’s Committee on adopting strategies to deal with the plan of “drawing sword” of 2021, the “blue sea” project, and unilateral fishing bans by other countries in the East Sea. It has collaborated with the city’s Military Command and Public Security Department, Naval Zone 3’s Command, Coast Guard Zone 2’s Command, the Fisheries Resources Surveillance Force, and localities in enhancing patrols and promoting the entire people’s strength to manage and defend seas and islands. It has given instructions to our fishing vessels on fishing in right grounds and under regulations in line with protecting national sovereignty, fisheries, and economic activities at sea. Fishermen have been encouraged to opportunely provide information concerning national sovereignty for competent forces. On a yearly basis, the MBG closely works with local party committees and authorities and competent offices to conduct surveys and persuade vessel owners and fishermen to commit themselves to taking part in safeguarding national sovereignty in the event. Due attention has been paid to equipping fishing vessels with signal equipment and installing the global positioning system within the MBG’s Command, border guard posts, and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to raise the quality of communication between fishermen and the Border Guard Force. Up to now, more than 130 groups of united, safe fishing vessels (nearly 700 vessels) have signed commitments to keeping in touch with the Border Guard Force and competent offices and participating in natural disaster prevention and control, search and rescue, and protection of marine natural resources and environment. Consequently, fishermen have provided thousands of pieces of valuable information for the MBG and competent forces to defend national sovereignty over seas and islands. Doing so has created a favourable condition for mobilising civilian personnel and vessels to fight against foreign ships’ violation of our country’s waters, mitigate the consequences of natural disasters, and conduct search and rescue operations under the Decrees 30/2010/NĐ-CP, dated March 29th, 2010 and 130/2015/NĐ-CP, dated December 18th, 2015 by the Government.

Taking advantage of our open-door and international integration policies, criminals at sea have been stepping up their activities. Hence, the MBG has cooperated with competent offices in advising localities on effectively controlling, preventing, and combating crimes, while taking part in maintaining security and order in the border areas and at sea. In addition to legal propagation, dissemination, and education, units of the MBG have intensified the movement of “all people’s participation in protecting national security” in tandem with the movement of “all people’s participation in protecting territorial sovereignty and national border security in the new situation.” They have worked with others of the city’s Public Security Department and Military Command in conducting joint patrols and encouraging citizens to actively detect, prevent, and handle offences. The MBG has well managed and controlled border gates under regulations on COVID-19 prevention and combat. In 2021, it cracked 94 cases, including 2 drug-related specialised ones and 1 smuggling-related specialised one, while handling 73 cases of administrative violation and 5 cases of smuggling and illegal transport. In the fight against crime and violation of national security and social order in the sea, border areas, many of the MBG’s cadres and soldiers have shed their blood for the people’s peaceful life, thus contributing to maintaining national sovereignty, national security, and social order, creating a favourable condition for the city’s socio-economic development.

Furthermore, units of the MBG have proactively developed and completed documents and plans on combat readiness and defensive combat under regulations. In this regard, emphasis has been placed on perfecting the Determination for Border Protection in the period of 2021-2025, adjusting and supplementing plans and projects for combat and civil defence in both long and short term. The MBG has given advice on raising the quality of operation of the Municipal Steering Board on East Sea and Islands, while maintaining combat readiness, correctly analysing and assessing situations, and opportunely, effectively handling incidents. It has proactively worked with localities to build and multiply effective models in terms of territorial sovereignty and border security protection and crime combat, such as “group of united, safe vessels,” “marine cultural residential area,” “safe, cultural fishing port,” “safe, cultural, civilised sea,” “three no’s religious area,” and “club of war veterans and ex-servicemen against crime,” thereby contributing to maintaining security and facilitating socio-economic development. The MBG’s Party Committee and Command have assigned party members of border guard posts to provide assistance for border households, while well realising the Municipal Party Committee Standing Board’s guidelines on requiring party members of border guard posts to maintain relations with coastal residential areas’ party committees and party cells as the basis for building strong political bases, improving the border defence work right at grass-roots level, and cementing the “posture of people’s hearts and minds.”

The MBG has actively, proactively collaborated with the city’s Fatherland Front Committee, departments, committees, sectors, and unions in well implementing socio-economic and cultural development projects to improve the people’s life and intellectual level in the marine border areas and making the core force capable of building strong all-people border defence. It has actively taken part in national target programmes for crime prevention and control, sustainable poverty reduction, new-style countryside construction, and duplication of cultural models in the marine border areas. At the same time, it has well executed the programmes, namely “supporting children’s schooling” and “border guard posts’ adopted children” in the period of 2016-2021. It has given thousands of national flags to fishermen, mobilised hundreds of millions of VND to repair 4 houses of poor families, and presented citizens affected by the COVID-19 pandemic with over 1 ton of vegetables and fruits and more than 200 gifts.

In response to challenges for the Homeland protection and construction, the MBG of Da Nang will keep bringing into play those above-mentioned lessons to well perform its core role in defending sacred national sovereignty over seas and islands.

Sr. Col. DO VAN DONG, Commissar of the MBG Command