To meet the requirements set by the task of managing and defending national territory and border security, on September 28^th 2018, the Politburo issued the Resolution 33-NQ/TW on the National Border Protection Strategy. The Resolution has provided an important basis for the Border Guard Force (BGF) to grasp and perform its task of managing and defending national border.

The Resolution 33-NQ/TW was released amidst the complex developments of the situation globally, regionally, and domestically and the disputes over territorial sovereignty, seas, and islands, particularly in the East Sea. Generally speaking, the Resolution includes many profound, comprehensive, scientific, revolutionary, key issues on the defence of national territorial sovereignty and border, which requires the forces, sectors, and political system’s thorough grasp and strict implementation.

Lt. Gen. Hoang Xuan Chien introducing the Resolution 33-NQ/TW to the Border Guard Academy

First, the Resolution’s general goal is to safeguard the national sovereign independence, unification, territorial integrity, and border; protect the Party, State, people, and socialist regime; defend the country’s renewal, industrialization, modernization, and international integration cause; protect the national benefit, peace, and national security, culture, law, and majesty in the border areas and at the border gates; build the national border of peace, friendship, stability, cooperation, and development; make contributions to boosting socio-economic development in line with defence-security and diplomacy in the border areas and across the country. Notably, the Resolution sets out the viewpoints, strategic principles, tasks, and measures, adding that managing and protecting the national border is a key, routine task of the entire Party, Military, people, political, and country. To perform this task, it is necessary to rely on the people; “each border citizen is a living border marker”; the people’s armed forces play the core role; the BGF is the specialized force and the first combat force to safeguard the national border. The Resolution also imposes the requirements for the BGF’s consolidation of its organizational structure and sets the BGF to be a service branch under the Ministry of National Defence (MND) and a revolutionary, regular, elite, gradually modern specialized force with several components moving forward to modernity.

In addition, the Resolution continues to advocate maintaining and enhancing the Party’s leadership and the State’s management over the task of building, managing, and protecting the national border; stepping up the work of propagation and education to raise the public awareness and achieve a sense of unity within the whole Party, Military, people, and political system towards the defence of national border. Focuses should be placed on building and consolidating the political system at the grass-roots level as the solid basis for building the postures of all-people national defence, people’s security, and all-people border defence in the border areas. It is important to facilitate the socio-economic, cultural development to make the border areas strong in line with defence-security consolidation and encourage the all people to defend the border in an extensive way. Besides, it is essential to promote international cooperation and improve the effectiveness of military diplomacy, border defence diplomacy, and people-to-people exchange in the defence of national border. Emphasis should be placed on continuing to complete the methods and projects of managing and protecting the national border in the new situation as well as to build and complete the mechanisms, policies, and laws on building, managing, and safeguarding the national border.

At present and in the upcoming time, the task of Homeland and border defence and the work of border defence impose more demanding requirements on the BGF. To make contributions to well executing the Resolution 33, the BGF should concentrate on the following.

First, introducing the Resolution to all cadres and soldiers within the BGF and developing the action plans/programs for the Resolution. The Resolution 33-NQ/TW shows the development of the Party’s strategic thought on the work of managing and protecting the border and the regard paid by the Party, State, Central Military Commission (CMC), and MND to the BGF. Thus, the BGF’s Party Committee and Command should proactively formulate the action plans/programs for the Resolution in order to concretize this document into its task of managing and protecting the national border. To do so, the BGF’s offices and units, particularly the provincial and municipal Border Guard Commands should actively advise local party committees and authorities in the border areas on introducing the Resolution to all sectors, organizations, cadres, and soldiers. A focus should be placed on rendering party committees, commands, cadres, and party members fully aware of the significance and basic points of the Resolution as the basis for well performing the task of managing and protecting the national border in the new situation. The work of introducing the Resolution must be centred on the strategic environment, targets, viewpoints, principles, tasks, and measures. In the process, it must be stressed that the defence of national border is placed under the absolute, direct leadership of the Party, especially the Politburo and the Central Secretariat, the State’s uniformed management as well as the CMC and MND’s leadership and direction.

Second, building and consolidating the border defence force extensively with the people acting as the subject of the defence of national border, the people’s armed forces playing the core role, and the BGF taking charge of managing and protecting the national border. To that end, border guard units should further render their cadres and soldiers fully aware of the Party’s guidelines, the State’s law, and the task of national border defence, improve their staff’s professional competence and legal, military knowledge, and make them capable of effectively using materiel and studying, grasping, and forecasting the situation in order to proactively advise higher echelons on settling the situation and avoid passivity. Moreover, borer guard units should raise their responsibility for the State management over the work of managing and protecting the national border sovereignty and security and the building of all-people border defence posture in line with the postures of all-people national defence and people’s security in the border, sea, island areas. They should advise local party committees and authorities on promoting the role of borderline and border marker self-management groups, village patriarchs, and prestige persons within the community in encouraging the people to take part in the management and defence of national border. Emphasis should be placed on building a revolutionary, regular, elite, gradually modern BGF with several components moving forward to modernity to meet the requirements set by the management and defence of national border in the new situation.

Third, continuing to give advice on making investments in building and developing clusters of border residential areas, boosting the socio-economic development, improving the people’s life, and building the all-people great unity block as the basis for consolidating defence-security and managing and protecting the national border. The provincial and municipal Border Guard Commands should give sound advice to the party committees and people’s committees of the border provinces and cities, while cooperating with offices, sectors, and forces in the border areas in effectively implementing the projects for economic development, hunger alleviation and poverty reduction, construction of facilities, health, and improvement in the people’s life as well as in making the political system in the border areas strong comprehensively. More importantly, border guard posts should continue to deploy their party members to assist households and join meetings of grass-roots party organizations to enhance their leadership and combativeness in the border areas as the basis for building the postures of all-people national defence, people’s security, and all-people border defence. Border guard units should continue to advise localities on providing facilities and teaching equipment to effectively implement the primary and secondary education popularization program and improve the people’s intellectual level in the border areas; on allocating lands and forests to the people so that they could settle down in the border areas.

Fourth, proactively preventing and fighting against all plots and acts of violating and destroying the national border and border markers; promoting cooperation with neighbours’ border guard forces. Importance should be attached to stepping up the work of propagation and education to raise the public awareness and achieve a sense of unity within the whole Party, Military, people, and political system towards the task of building, managing, and protecting the national border and the defence of the national majesty, people, and political, economic, defence-security targets in the border areas. Consideration should be given to consolidating, supplementing, and completing the posture, organizing the force, and adopting various measures for national border protection; leading and directing the performance of the work of preventing and combating crimes of all types, particularly organized crime, trans-national crime, and trans-border crime. Great value should be attached to proactively developing the plans and projects to respond to non-traditional security challenges, manage and defend the national border, and maintain the political security and social order and safety in the border areas.

In addition, the BGF should promote the results of national defence, border, and border defence exchange programs, maintain and multiply the model of twinned border guard posts and villages from the two sides of the border so as to build, manage, and protect the border of peace, stability, friendship, cooperation, and development. It should establish and effectively maintain the mechanisms for “hot line”, joint patrols, information exchange, and joint exercises on trans-border crime prevention and control and search and rescue in the border areas. Moreover, it should further conduct reviews, develop theory, and complete the projects to manage and protect the national border in the new situation.

Lt. Gen., Associate Prof. Hoang Xuan Chien, PhD, Member of the Party Central Committee, Member of the CMC, Commander of the BGF