Acutely aware of their function and assigned task, the Military Region 4’s armed forces have always cooperated with other forces and promoted their core role in well carrying out the military-defence mission to make great contributions to the Homeland construction and protection.

The Military Region 4 includes 6 North Central Coast provinces, holding a position of importance to the Homeland construction and defence. Clearly understanding the region’s significant position, the Military Region 4’s Party Committee and Command have focused their leadership and direction on comprehensively performing pieces of the defence-military work and achieved many encouraging results. Notably, the Military Region 4’s armed forces have always proactively grasped and correctly anticipated the situation and opportunely given advice to the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of National Defence (MND) on the new developments of national defence and military diplomacy. At the same time, the Military Region has directed its armed forces to advise local party committees and authorities on drawing up and effectively executing resolutions, directives, plans, and projects on national defence as well as conducting the work of defence and security education. The combination of socio-economic development and defence, security, and diplomacy has produced good results. The all-people national defence and the posture of all-people national defence associated with the posture of people’s security in the area have been consolidated. The potential and posture of defensive zones, particularly their military posture have been designed and built in accordance with the Military Region’s defensive posture, in an inter-connected, solid manner, in all three directions, namely at sea, on border, and in inland area. The Military Region’s armed forces have been consolidated and made “compact and strong.” They have always maintained vigilance and readiness for opportunely dealing with defence-security situations, foiling all plots and artifices by the hostile forces, playing a core role in natural disaster prevention and mitigation as well as in search and rescue, carrying out the mass mobilisation work, constructing and developing economic-defence zones, helping the people with hunger eradication and poverty reduction, and making the grass-roots political system and the “people’s hearts and minds” posture increasingly strong. They have also well conducted the work of military diplomacy and fostered unity, friendship and cooperation with Laos’ localities and military units, thereby creating the synergy for defending the national border sovereignty and the Homeland from afar.

Lt. Gen. Nguyen Doan Anh directing Quang Binh’s provincial defensive zone exercise of 2019

In the upcoming time, the military-defence and Homeland protection tasks will be much more demanding. In addition to basic advantages, the Military Region is confronted with numerous difficulties and challenges. The hostile forces, political opportunists, and religious extremists continue stepping up their sabotage plans. Political security and the situation in industrial zones and key areas related to ethnicity and religion face the risk of instability. Climate, natural disasters, and epidemics continue to be complex and unpredictable. Against that backdrop, the Military Region’s armed forces should heighten the political responsibility, raise their synergy and combat strength, and promote their core role in performing the military-defence task, with a focus on the following.

First, proactively giving advice to local party committees and authorities on enhancing their leadership and direction over the military-defence work. Adhering to the Party’s military-defence guidelines and policies on building the armed forces, the Military Region will synchronously adopt measures for raising the effectiveness of the building and operation of defensive zones and constructing its armed forces with the proper structure and high quality. At the same time, it will focus on building and maintaining standing border militia units and a standing coastal militia fleet as a model within itself. It will strictly maintain the order for combat readiness at all levels, review, adjust, and practise the combat projects/plans for defensive zones, natural disaster prevention and control, and search and rescue, while improving the quality of training, military standard order building and discipline management. It will continue to execute the Government’s Decree 03/2019/NĐ-CP on “maintaining cooperation between the Ministry of Public Security and the MND in defending national security, ensuring social order and safety, and performing the national defence task” and closely cooperate with local party committees, authorities and forces in opportunely, effectively settling situations according to each force’s function and task so as to avoid passivity and unexpected situations.

Emphasis will be placed on directing the all-level local military offices to cooperate with local forces and sectors in advising authorities on enhancing state management of national defence, closely combining socio-economic development with defence-security consolidation, and making the all-people national defence and the posture of all-people national defence together with the posture of people’s security and defensive zones increasingly strong. Local military offices should continue improving the quality and effectiveness of defence and security education for students, groups of cadres, and all people, particularly in the areas mostly inhabited by ethnic minority groups and the border, sea, and island ones with a view to achieving a huge positive change in all people’s awareness and responsibility for the Homeland defence in the new situation. Moreover, they should closely cooperate with the all-level party committees and authorities in successfully executing the Strategy for the Homeland protection and other ones.

Second, stepping up the building of strong provincial and district-level defensive zones as the basis for making the all-people national defence strong. This is among the core points of the military-defence work and represents a central, routine task of the local party committees and authorities, the entire political system, and all people, with the Military Region’s armed forces playing the core role. Grounded on the achievements and experiences in 10 years of execution of the Politburo’s Resolution 28-NQ/TW, the Military Region’s armed forces should advise local party committees and authorities and cooperate with other forces in building strong provincial and district-level defensive zones in terms of potential, force, and posture.

The all-level military offices of localities should encourage their role in formulating the strategies, plans, and projects for closely combining socio-economic development with defence, security and diplomacy, continue advising localities on completing the mechanisms and regulations for the building and operation of defensive zones, supplement and adjust the plan for military posture within defensive zones in accordance with reality. Great value should be attached to planning and closely managing national defence works, particularly provinces and districts’ tunnels and dual-use works for socio-economic development and national defence, and completely settling shortcomings in management and use of national defence land. Well performing their function as standing agencies of the Steering Boards for building defensive zones, the all-level military offices should counsel localities to allocate budgets for constructing key works and gradually completing military posture within defensive zones in a close connection with the Military Region’s defensive posture as well as attach importance to the defensive works on the coast and islands. Consideration should be given to raising the quality of building safe communes and clusters of residential areas and making them capable of maintaining combat readiness. A focus should be placed on renewing and improving the quality of provincial and district-level defensive zone exercises, defensive combat exercises, natural disaster prevention and control drills, and search and rescue operations in order to keep enhancing the capacity to operate the mechanism for leading, directing, and commanding the building and operation of defensive zones in the states of national defence as the basis for supplementing and completing the combat projects and proactively effectively dealing with all defence-security situations in the areas. Significance should be attached to actively cooperating with public security and border guard offices and local party committees and authorities in the areas in preparing the projects to maintain political security and social order and safety prior to, during, and after the all-level party congresses and elections of deputies to the peoples’ councils in localities in the upcoming time.

Third, well performing the function as “an army ready for work and for production” in the new period, raising the quality and effectiveness of mass mobilisation, and building a firm posture of “people’s hearts and minds.” In addition to combat readiness, the Military Region’s armed forces should actively stay close to the areas, particularly the ones which are confronted with complex issues on ethnicity and religion and the isolated, remote, border ones, so as to carry out the mass mobilisation work, unmask the hostile forces’ plots and artifices of sabotage, build the grass-roots level political system, and help the people with natural disaster prevention and control and search and rescue. Due attention should be paid to effectively conducting the movements, namely “the armed forces join hands in building new-style countryside” and “the Military Region 4’s armed forces join hands for the poor - no one left behind” as well as models for helping the people with economic development, hunger eradication, and poverty reduction. At the same time, emphasis should be placed on cooperating with local competent offices in well implementing the policy work, the policies for the “Army Rear,” and the “Gratitude” movement. Doing so will help cement the unity between the Military and the people and build a firm posture of “people’s hearts and minds” as the basis for successfully fulfilling the military-defence task.

A focus should be placed on effectively executing the Resolution by the Military Region’s Party Committee on “leadership over the task C” and the Project on “fostering defence cooperation between Vietnam and Laos towards 2020 and beyond.” It is necessary to cooperate with Laotian armed forces in maintaining the Joint Conference between the Military Region 4’s Command and Laos’ Divisions 1 and 4 and Military Commands of Vientiane city, Xaysomboun province, and other Central provinces bordering the Military Region 4. At the same time, due regard should be paid to implementing the twinning programs between the Military Region 4’s units and Laotian localities and units, organising dialogues, exchanging information, and conducting joint patrols for managing border sovereignty and security and fighting against the hostile forces’ plots and artifices of sabotage and crimes of all types, with the aim of making contributions to executing our Party and State’s foreign policy and building a border of peace, friendship, stability, and development.

Promoting the heroic Vietnam People’s Army’s glorious 75-year tradition of construction, combat, and development, the Military Region 4’s armed forces will grasp their function and assigned task, unite in overcoming all difficulties and challenges, and play a core role in successfully fulfilling the military-defence mission together with local party committees, authorities, and people in the area to defend the Homeland in the new situation.

Lt. Gen. Nguyen Doan Anh, Commander of the Military Region 4