Over the past years, fully aware of their assigned missions and weighty responsibilities as well as their strategic position of special significance, the Capital City’s armed forces have actively and proactively promoted their pivotal role in building the municipal stronger defensive zone in unison with the municipal Party Organization, government and people, matching the requirements for Homeland protection in the new situation.

Hanoi capital city is a national political, administrative, economic, cultural, educational, scientific, technological, and diplomatic hub; a strategic area of utmost importance; and the national “heart” and symbol of victory. It is also a breeding ground for opposition via malicious and complex artifices and stratagems by hostile forces. Therefore, it is extremely important to properly implement military and defence missions, build strong defensive zones, and strictly maintain political stability and social order and security for the sake of Hanoi development, which makes higher demands on the municipal Party Organization, government, armed forces and people.

Grounded in the Party’s military-defence guidelines, especially Resolution No. 28-NQ/TW by the Politburo (10^th tenure); Directive No. 07-CT/TW by the Secretariat (11^th tenure); Decrees No. 152/2007/NĐ-CP and 02/2016/NĐ-CP by the Government on building defensive zones, in parallel with directly building all-level defensive zones, the Hanoi High Command (hereinafter the High Command) has cooperated with the municipal relevant departments, sectors, and branches in giving sound advice to the municipal Party Committee, People’s Council and Committee on leadership and direction on this work with an emphasis on combining socio-economic development with enhanced national defence and security and diplomacy; on the building of all-people defence posture with that of the people’s security posture; on the building of defensive zone posture and potential with the posture of “people’s hearts and minds” as the core; and on planning the construction of stronger military posture of defensive zones, etc. Accordingly, the High Command and other military agencies at all levels have tightly grasped situations and proactively advised the municipal government to issue and effectively implement resolutions, directions and action programs pertaining to the local military-defence work and other military-defence projects, namely Program No. 06-Tr/TU, dated 12-01-2009 on executing Resolution No. 28-NQ/TW; Program No. 05-CTr/TU, dated 26-4-2016 by the municipal Party Committee on strengthening military-defence work and maintaining social order and safety in the new situation”; Resolution No. 30/2013/NQ-HĐND, dated 06-12-2013 by the municipal People’s Council on building the municipal defensive zone towards 2020 and beyond” etc. The High Command has regularly streamlined the organizations of defensive zones. As a standing office of Steering Boards of building defensive zones and people’s air defence and Councils of Military Service and Military-Defence Education, the High Command has actively been involved in an advisory capacity on the local military-defence work, thereby creating a complete transformation in the building and operation of the municipal defensive zone.

The conference to issue the resolution on leading the implementation of the task in the final half of 2018 by the Municipal High Command’s Party Committee

The building of strong political economic and military potential has been at the forefront of the building of defensive zone. Fully aware of that, the High Command and its affiliates have thoroughly grasped the Party guidelines and advised local party committees and administrations at all levels to combine socio-economic development with the promotion of defence and security posture in the stationed areas. Accordingly, great importance is attached to developing potential economic sectors, investing in infrastructure and prioritizing dual—purpose constructions whilst proactively and opportunely proposing the formulation of the municipal socio-economic development strategies and projects, particularly those in key defence-security areas, thereby properly carrying out defence-related state management and ensuring a harmony between socioeconomic development and strengthened national defence and security and diplomacy in line with the Party guidelines. Besides, the municipal armed forces have promoted their leading role in implementing the construction of defensive zone posture. The High Command has researched and fine-tuned the master plan on defence disposition in close combination with socio-economic development in the 2011-2020 period in line with realistic requirements in Hanoi; finalized the plan on military posture of defensive zones; and implemented the master plan on building defensive constructions, etc. while counselling the municipal and local administrations to combine the building of defensive zones with non-military defence and mobilizing trillions of VND to build the military posture of defensive zones, thereby forming a widespread continuous defensive posture and matching defense-security and combat requirements under any circumstances in the event of a war.

Performing the assigned duties, the High Command and local military agencies have proactively collaborated with the municipal departments, sectors, and branches in stepping up the work of communications and political education in order to enhance the quality of defence-security education for every object, particularly key cadres, students, religious dignitaries and ethnic minorities in the stationed areas, thereby creating a complete transformation in awareness and a sense of responsibility towards defence-security missions and Homeland protection amongst a contingent of cadres and party members. Simultaneously, the municipal armed forces have always been in the vanguard of combatting and foiling artifices and stratagems of “peaceful evolution” and “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” by hostile forces; actively carried out mass mobilization and partaken in building the powerful political system at grassroots level; properly implemented the movements of “Repaying gratitude” and “Joining hands in building new-type rural areas”; and assisted people in hunger eradication and poverty alleviation and natural disaster relief efforts, etc., thereby practically contributing to building the stronger posture of “people’s hearts and minds” at grassroots level; laying a sound foundation for the building of national block of great unity; promoting the synergy amongst the municipal branches, sectors, mass organizations, and people; and tightly preserving political stability and social order and safety.

In the capacity as both a subject and an object in the process of implementing the municipal defence-security work, the local armed forces act as a determinant to military capabilities of defensive zones. As a result, the High Command has always attached great weight to advising the municipal and local party committees and administrations to building politically, ideologically, organizationally strong armed forces, genuinely becoming an absolutely reliable and loyal force to the municipal party committee and administration and people whilst synchronously taking various measures to maintain discipline and enhance combat readiness capability and build the municipal “elite, compact, strong” armed forces, thereby competently performing a leading role in fulfilling defence-security missions  and tightly safeguarding the Capital City under every circumstance.

Reporting the combat determination in Thanh Oai’s defensive zone exercise in 2018

In parallel with building strong offices and units, the municipal armed forces have been in the vanguard in the operation of defensive zones. The High Command and its affiliates have proactively examined and drawn up military mobilization plans; instructed the municipal departments, branches, and localities to formulate military logistic schedules in line with the municipal particularities; played a leading role in implementing plans and projects concerning militia and self-defence and reserve forces, etc. In particular, there have been many reforms in the work of military recruitment as evidenced by the highest number of recruits with university and college education in Hanoi capital city. In addition, the High Command has instructed its affiliates to effectively hold defensive zone drills and exercises at all levels through original contents and methods in tune with localities’ missions and peculiarities, thereby perfecting operational mechanism for defensive zones, enhancing leadership and directive capabilities for all-level party committees and administrations and relevant forces’ ability to handle defence-security contingencies. Notably, the municipal armed forces have always exercised constant vigilance, strictly maintained combat readiness; actively designed and  perfected combat schedules and other relevant ones while tightly collaborating with other forces, particularly the municipal Public Security force under Decree No. 77/2010/NĐ-CP by the Government in proactively predicting and grasping situations in key areas so as to work out appropriate countermeasures, thereby proactively dealing with possible incidents and absolutely guaranteeing the safety of the Party and State nerve centres and political cultural diplomatic events in the municipal areas in order that Hanoi is worthy of “the City for peace” and popularity from Vietnamese people and international friends.

Practical deeds done by the municipal armed forces have contributed greatly to building defensive zones, giving added impetus to all-people defence posture and people’s security posture in the municipal areas; tightly protecting political security and social order and safety; and creating favourable conditions for Hanoi’s comprehensive development. In the years to come, the mission of safeguarding the Homeland and constructing the capital city will be increasingly demanding and characterized by both opportunities and challenges. Fully aware of great honour and weighty responsibility to defend the “heart” of the country, the municipal armed forces continue to thoroughly perceive the Party’s defence and military guidelines, the Central Military Commission and Ministry of National Defence’s resolutions and directions as a basis for furthering their leading role in implementing military-defence missions and building the stronger municipal defensive areas in unison with the municipal Party Organization, administration and people. On the basis of attained results, particularly the review of 10 years of performing Resolution No. 28-NQ/TW by the Politburo, the municipal Military Party Committee and High Command have regularly directed their affiliates to advise the municipal party committees and administrations to promote defence-related state management; to combine the building of national defence and all-people defence posture with that of people’s security posture; and to comprehensively build stronger defensive area posture and potential. In the immediate term, it is necessary to cooperate with the municipal departments, branches, and sectors in advising the municipal Administration to accelerate the implementation of action Program on executing Resolution No. 28-NQ/TW in association with the implementation of Resolution of the 8th Plenum of the Party Central Committee (11^th tenure) on “Stragety on Homeland protection in the new situation” and Vietnam’s Defence Strategy, contributing to building politically economically strong, modern, and civilized Hanoi, worthy of a reputation as the capital city of heroism and millennia-old civilization by heroic Vietnamese peoples.

Maj. Gen. Nguyen Doan Anh,  Head of the Municipal High Command