In 2019, the whole Military performed various missions when the situation around the globe and in the region witnessed complex developments, the strategic competition and the trade war between major powers were intense, and sovereign disputes, ethnicity conflicts, terrorist attacks, local wars, and non-traditional security challenges were on the rise. Domestically, politico-social security was basically stabilised, economic growth was rather rapid, national defence, security and diplomacy were consolidated, and the fight against corruption continued to achieve the encouraging results, thereby contributing to cementing the people’s faith in the Party, State, and Military. However, the situation in the East Sea witnessed new complex developments, posing defence-security challenges. The hostile forces stepped up their sabotage strategy with the increasingly malicious artifices. Things mentioned above created opportunities and advantages, while posing challenges for the military-defence and Homeland protection tasks.

Gen. Ngo Xuan Lich addressing the Military-Political Conference for the whole Military in 2019 (photo: qdnd.vn)

Against that backdrop, the Central Military Commission (CMC), the Ministry of National Defence (MND), and the all-level party committees and commands always adhered to the Party’s leadership and the State’s management and focused their leadership and direction on successfully fulfilling the military-defence task of 2019. Notably, the Military proactively undertook strategic researches and advised the Party and the State on proper strategies for resolutely, opportunely, effectively dealing with defence-security situations to avoid passivity. It promoted its core role in making the all-people national defence, the postures of all-people national defence and people’s security, and defensive zones increasingly solid. The work of training, exercise, and education, the financial, logistics, and technical work as well as the building and development of defence industry were carried out and renewed actively, comprehensively with many outstanding results. Military international integration and diplomacy were expanded in a focalised, profound manner. We deployed the Level-2 Field Hospitals No.1 and No.2 to the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in South Sudan, which was warmly welcomed and highly appreciated by the host country’s people. The three breakthrough measures set by the Resolution of the 10^th Military Party Congress continued to be effectively implemented. There was a solid change in maintaining the military standard order. The strategy for force rearrangement was executed seriously, drastically and achieved many good results. The Military’s synergy and combat strength were raised. The entire Military always maintained combat readiness and cooperated with the Public Security Force and others in ensuring political security and social order and safety as well as defending the national independence, sovereignty, unification, and territorial integrity. At the same time, it always played a core role in carrying out the work of natural prevention and control, conducting search and rescue operations, settling environmental pollution, building the grass-roots level political system and new-style countryside, and helping the people with hunger eradication and poverty reduction. Doing so contributed to bolstering the noble image of “Uncle Ho’s soldiers” and strengthening the close-knit bond between the Military and the people.

The Military Party Organisation (MPO) continued to played a vanguard role in implementing the 12^th Party Central Committee’s Resolution No.4, the Politburo’s Directive 05-CT/TW, and other directives and guiding documents by the Party on the Party building, while actively making all preparations for the all-level party congresses under the Politburo’s direction in accordance with its task requirements. The all-level party committees and organisations across the whole Military were made politically, ideologically, organisationally, and morally strong. The leadership capacity and combativeness of party organisations and the quality of cadres and party members were raised. The party and political work was carried out actively, effectively and contributed to making the Military politically strong as the basis for enhancing its synergy and combat power. Units and offices well held the Determination to Win Emulation Congresses for the period of 2014-2019, successfully organised programs to celebrate the 30^th anniversary of the All-People National Defence Festive Day (December 22^nd 1989 - December 22^nd 2019) and the 75^th founding anniversary of the Vietnam People’s Army (December 22^nd 1944 - December 22^nd 2019), thereby spreading, arousing, and bolstering the country’s pride and tradition and the image of Uncle Ho’s soldiers in the new period. The whole Military maintained a sense of unity, remained steadfastness and kept its absolute faith in the Party’s leadership and the State’s management, fostered a close-knit bond with the people, and readily undertook and successfully fulfilled all assigned tasks.

The Military achieved the encouraging results; however, in 2019, there were several weaknesses in performing the military-defence work. The work of grasping and anticipating the situation has yet to be timely. The quality of training was still limited. Political education and discipline management in some units have yet to be close. Violations of law, serious violations of discipline, traffic accidents, and training incidents have yet to be reduced. Party committees and commands should seriously draw lessons and quickly take measures for dealing with those weaknesses.

In 2020, it is anticipated that the situation in the world and the region will have rapid, complex developments. The strategic competition, trade war, and non-traditional and traditional security challenges will be on the rise. The ASEAN Community will develop and more deeply and widely integrate into the world, but it will face new challenges. The situation in the East Sea will be complex, intense, and unpredictable. The Southwestern sea will possibly face new challenges for national defence and security. This year, there will be many significant events domestically, such as the all-level party congresses and the 11^th Military Party Congress in the run-up to the 13^th National Party Congress. In addition to basic advantages, our Military and people’s Homeland defence mission will be much more demanding. The tasks of national defence consolidation, Military build-up, and Homeland protection will pose new requirements. The hostile forces will step up their sabotage strategy more drastically and publicly, particularly during the all-level party congresses. Therefore, to well perform the military-defence task of 2020, the whole Military and the all-level party committees and commands must heighten their political responsibility and drastically, synchronously adopt various measures, with a focus on the following.

First, frequently maintaining vigilance and combat readiness, giving strategic advice to the Party and the State on victoriously dealing with all military-defence situations. Against the rapid, complex developments of the situation globally, regionally, and domestically, particularly in the East Sea, the entire Military and especially its strategic offices should further raise the quality of strategic researches and forecasts about the military-defence issues, proactively advise the Party and the State on developing guidelines, flexible, proper strategies, and comprehensive measures for preventing the risk of war and conflict and successfully handling military-defence situations to avoid falling into passivity at the strategic level. To do so, offices should proactively, flexibly create a breakthrough and a reform in strategic research and continue closely cooperating with other forces in grasping the situation, especially major powers’ strategic moves and adjustments as well as relevant changes in the political security situation around the world and in the region. They should focus on studying, assessing, analysing, and correctly anticipating the developments of the situation at the strategic level, with emphasis placed on proposing major policies on building national defence and security potential, force, and posture, developing and completing the system of military-defence laws, effectively executing the issued military-defence strategies, resolutions, conclusions, projects, and laws, and making timely, correct evaluations of our partners and opponents as the basis for devising appropriate methods of defence struggle and diplomacy to meet the requirements set by the new situation.

The whole Military should frequently strictly maintain vigilance and combat readiness, proactively review, adjust, supplement, and complete combat determination and projects and coordination plans in each strategic direction and area, enhance patrols to prevent and opportunely, effectively deal with situations, and closely manage the airspace, seas, border, inland areas, and key areas. At the same time, due attention should be paid to closely cooperating with the Public Security Force and others in well implementing the Government’s Decree 03/2019/NĐ-CP, dated September 5^th 2019, foiling the hostile forces’ “peaceful evolution” strategy and their plots of riot and conversion, maintaining national security and social order and safety, and defending the all-level party congresses, national major holidays, and the Homeland’s independence, sovereignty, unification, and territorial integrity.

Second, continuing to promote the core role in building the all-people national defence and the posture of all-people national defence associated with the posture of people’s security. Making the all-people national defence comprehensively strong, increasingly modern, and capable of defending the Homeland in the new situation is the responsibility of the entire Party, people and political system, with the People’s Army playing the core role. Offices and units, particularly the all-level local military offices should keep grasping and stringently executing the 10^th Politburo’s Resolution 28-NQ/TW, the Government’s Decree 21/2019/NĐ-CP, dated February 22^nd 2019, the Strategy for the Homeland defence in the new situation, Vietnam’s National Defence Strategy, Vietnam’s Military Strategy, the National Defence Law, the (amended) Law on the Militia and Self-Defence Force, and the (amended) Law on the Reserve Force. Grounded on those documents, they should actively give advice to localities and cooperate with other forces in making the all-people national defence and the postures of all-people national defence and people’s security strong. In this regard, emphasis should be placed on raising the quality of defence and security education, advising localities on combining socio-economic development with national defence, security, and diplomacy, formulating and completing the mechanisms and regulations for leading and operating the building and operation of defensive zones at the provincial and military region levels, consolidating steering boards and councils for the military-defence work at all levels and military commands at central and local sectors and offices, and making the militia and self-defence force and the reserve force strong. Notably, it is necessary to enhance the building of defensive zone potential and posture, especially the “people’s hearts and minds” posture and military posture in the key border, sea, and island areas. Moreover, military units should continue promoting their function as “an army ready for work,” actively carrying out the work of mass moblisation and special propaganda, taking part in building the grass-roots level political system and helping the people with hunger eradication, poverty reduction, and natural disaster prevention and control, and constructing economic-defence zones effectively so as to make the all-people national defence posture and the “people’s hearts and minds” posture strong as the basis for defending the Homeland.

Third, focusing on raising the Military’s synergy and combat strength, striving to fulfil main goals and targets set by the Resolution of the 10^th Military Party Congress. The year 2020 plays a decisive role in accomplishing the goals and targets of the 2015-2020 tenure. Thus, the all-level party committees and organisations should review and supplement measures for completing the goals, targets, and tasks set in the action plans/programs for the Resolution of the 10^th Military Party Congress. First of all, it is important to synchronously adopt measures for making the Military strong politically as the basis for improving its synergy and combat power and ensuring that it will be a loyal, reliable political and combat force of the Party, State, and people. Offices and units should further raise the effectiveness of the party and political work in the performance of their tasks, concentrate on renewing political education, legal dissemination, and ideological orientation so that their troops would comprehend partners, opponents, and the hostile forces’ plots and artifices, particularly in the units in charge of defending the national border, sea, and island sovereignty. They should opportunely detect and settle their troops’ arising ideological issues, build up their staff members’ political zeal, pure revolutionary morality, and observance of discipline, and make them capable of undertaking and successfully fulfilling all assigned tasks. The entire Military should continue enhancing the 12^th Politburo’s Directive 05-CT/TW in line with the Campaign entitled “promoting tradition, devoting talent, deserving to be Uncle Ho’s soldiers” in the new period. Consideration should be given to closely managing the internal political situation and proactively cooperating with other forces in effectively dealing with the hostile forces’ “peaceful evolution” strategy, particularly when the all-level party congresses take place, maintaining the Party’s ideological foundation, and preventing “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” from occurring within the Military.

The whole Military should keep implementing the three breakthrough measures according to the Resolution of the 10^th Military Party Congress, namely organisational structure, education and training, observance of law and discipline, and reform in military administration. The all-level party committees and commands should enhance their leadership and direction on implementing the Politburo’s Conclusion 16-KL/TW and the Project on the Military’s organisational structure in the new situation and the Project on the system of military schools, while seriously making forces compact and strong, with priority given to the units tasked with combat readiness and the ones stationed in the key areas. Additionally, it is essential to grasp and execute the CMC’s Resolution 765-NQ/QUTW on “raising the quality of training in the period of 2013-2020 and beyond,” and renew the organisation and method of training and exercises. At the time, significance should be attached to following the training motto of “basics, practicality, and thorough grasp,” providing and making training courses synchronous, specialised, and relevant to reality of combat, operating areas, objects of struggle, organisational structure, equipment, and conditions of high-tech warfare. Great value should be attached to increasing tactical, physical training, mastering weapons and equipment, particularly the new-generation ones, and enhancing manoeuvrability, joint operations, and combat power to defend seas, islands, and cyber space. Military academies and schools should actively renew their training procedure, program, and content, improve the quality of foreign language learning and teaching, build smart schools capable of approaching the 4^th industrial revolution, and fostering international cooperation in education and training to meet the requirements for the military build-up in the new situation.

The all-level party committees and commands should focus their leadership and direction on multiplying comprehensively strong, “exemplary, typical” model units. At the same time, it is necessary to synchronously take measures for managing discipline, personnel, weapons, equipment and soldiers’ relationships, create a solid change in military standard order building and observance of discipline and law, reduce the rate of violations of law, discipline, and safety regulations on training, exercise, and traffic, especially the serious ones, and completely settle the issues on management and use of national defence land. The whole Military should continue to step up a reform in military administration and formulate breakthrough measures for this work at strategic and campaign-level offices. Besides, it is important to well perform the logistics, technical, planning, investment, financial, judicial, and cipher work in order to make a breakthrough change in the Military’s combat readiness and strength and meet the requirements set by the military-defence task in the new situation.

Fourth, enhancing the effectiveness of military international integration and diplomacy to create advantages and strength for defending the Homeland. Nowadays, the work of military international integration and diplomacy plays an important role in national defence consolidation and the Homeland protection. Thus, the all-level party committees and commands should keep grasping and effectively implementing guidelines and policies by our Party and State on military international integration and diplomacy in the new situation, particularly the 11^th Politburo’s Resolution 22-NQ/TW and the CMC’s Resolution 806-NQ/QUTW. Emphasis should be placed on fostering multilateral and bilateral defence relations and cooperation in a deep, practical fashion and actively, responsibly taking part in international forums, multilateral defence cooperation mechanisms, and the UN peacekeeping operations. In the process, it is essential to remain steadfast in the goals and directions for integration, prioritise defence relations and cooperation with neighbours, major powers, strategic partners, ASEAN member states, and traditional friends, well manage defence relations and cooperation with our partners to ensure strategic balance and strengthen confidence, and proactively prepare projects for struggle via defence relations to gain the international community’s support for Vietnam’s legitimate benefits, particularly in the East Sea. In the medium term, due regard should be paid to well executing the Projects on “military international integration towards 2020, with a vision towards 2030” and the Master Plan for military diplomacy in 2020 when Vietnam assumes the ASEAN Chairmanship and becomes a non-permanent Member of the UN Security Council. A focus should be placed on successfully hosting the 14^th ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM), the 7^th ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM+), the Conference of Defence Ministers of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, and border defence friendship exchange programs with China, Laos, and Cambodia as well as on making all preparations for deploying the Engineer Team to the UN Peacekeeping Mission in South Sudan. Doing so will help build the strategic trust, raise our Military and country’s prestige and status in the international arena, create a firm posture of military diplomacy, and defend the Homeland by peaceful means.

Fifth, carefully preparing and successfully organising the all-level party congresses, making the MPO politically, ideologically, morally, and organisationally strong and capable of meeting the task requirements in the new situation. This is a determinant to the Military’s fulfilment of military-defence and Homeland protection task. Thus, the whole Military should continue synchronously, effectively taking groups of measures for executing the 12^th Party Central Committee’s Resolution No.4 on the Party building and rectification in line with the Politburo’s Directive No.5, closely combining the Party building with the Party defence, proactively preventing and repelling the degradation in political ideology, ethics, and lifestyle as well as the signs of “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” within the MPO. The all-level party committees and organisations should conform to the principle of democratic centralism, actively renew the method of leadership, raise the quality of meeting and their capacity to implement resolutions, heighten role model-setting responsibility of party committee heads and commanders, and enhance the work of inspection, supervision, self-criticism, and criticism to maintain the Party’s discipline. In the short term, units should review and accomplish the goals, targets, and tasks set by the Resolution of the 10^th Military Party Congress. At the same time, they should focus their leadership and direction on introducing and stringently implementing the Politburo’s Directive 35-CT/TW, the CMC Standing Board’s Directive 747-CT/QUTW, and higher echelons’ guiding documents on elaborately preparing and successfully holding the all-level party congresses and the 11^th Military Party Congress, while taking part in building documents of the 13^th National Party Congress. The all-level party committees and organisations should grasp the spirit of renewal, democracy, unity, and discipline, well perform the work of internal political protection, and carefully make political reports and personnel plans for new party committees. Great value should be attached to consolidating party committees and a contingent of key cadres at all levels in line with the personnel plans for 2020-2025 tenure party committees, particularly at the strategic and campaign levels, ensuring local military cadres would join the all-level local party committees. After the party congresses, the all-level party committees and organisations must quickly develop the work and leadership regulations, the working programs for their whole tenure, and the action programs for the congress resolutions, while assigning the tasks to party committee members, building a sense of unity, and exercising leadership over the fulfilment of tasks, targets, and goals set by the party congresses at all levels.

The military-defence task of 2020 will be very arduous. With the Military’s 75-year tradition of construction, combat and development, cadres and soldiers within the Military will keep raising their political responsibility, maintain unity, proactively, creatively successfully fulfil the assigned mission, and gain achievement to celebrate the 90^th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (February 3^rd 1930 - February 3^rd 2019), the 45^th anniversary of South Liberation and National Unification (April 30^th 1975 - April 30^th 2019), the 75^th anniversary of the August Revolution (August 19^th 1945 - August 19^th 2019) and the 75^th anniversary of the National Day of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (September 2^nd 1945 - September 2^nd 2019).

Gen. Ngo Xuan Lich, Member of the Politburo

Deputy Secretary of the CMC, Minister of National Defence