Determining exactly partners and opponents is an essential issue, which can be used as major foundation for making foreign and domestic policies, as well as stratagems for building and safeguarding the Fatherland. This is also one of our Party’s directions in “Strategy to safeguard the Fatherland in the new situation”.

Assessing exactly the world and the region and domestic situations in combination with analysis and forecasting of development trends in the coming years, the Party Central Committee (XI tenure) Resolution 28-NQ/TW on Strategy to safeguard the Fatherland in the new situation has clearly determined the goals, guidelines, guidance viewpoints and contents and resolutions to be implemented of which the determination of partners and opponents are of special  importance.

Accordingly, “whoever respects Vietnam’s independence and sovereignty, and has friendship relationship and equal and mutual beneficial cooperation with Vietnam is Vietnam’s partner; and whatever type of opponent that has scheme and acts to destroy Vietnam’s goals in the cause of building and safeguarding the country is Vietnam’s opponent”. This is appropriate to context and trend of the time and meets the requirements of safeguarding the Fatherland in the new situation, and at the same time this is appropriate to our Party and State’s complete penetration goal, aimed at keeping peaceful and stable environment for the development of the country which is the ultimate goal of the revolution. The Party Central Committee (XI tenure) Resolution 28-NQ/TW has asserted the two coexistent and popularly intertwined sides in each “partner” and “opponent”, which requests us to have a dialectical and scientific viewpoint, therefore in each point of time, we can recognize clearly the partner for boosting cooperation and the opponent for fighting against. This is a new development and a flexible point of view, which sets up a precondition and a foundation for branches of all levels, forces, localities and the whole people to raise vigilance, both promoting cooperation and struggling in all areas.

At present, Vietnam has established strategic partnership relationships with more than twenty countries in the world, including major powers, neighboring and traditional friendly countries. While enhancing the partnership relationship, we insistently resolve emerging issues, disputes, in particular, the dispute in the East Sea (Bien Dong) through peaceful means on the basis of international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), not to let conflicts or confrontations occur in order to build and consolidate peaceful environment for the development of the country, simultaneously keeping resolute struggle to protect the territorial sovereignty. We may divide partners into groups, such as: trustworthy strategic partners, comprehensive strategic partners, comprehensive partners, and strategic partners.

Opponents of the Vietnamese revolution can be divided into following groups:

1. Opponents who hatch a plot to overthrow the socialist regime and use “peaceful evolution” as a major attack, promoting the course of “self-evolving” and “self-transforming” to change our political regime.

2. Opponents who have ambition of territorial sovereignty, and secretly conduct the plot to encroach upon our borders, territorial waters and islands.

3. Opponents affected by “peaceful evolution” and maybe led to “self-change” and create “political riot” or voluntarily become an accomplice of opponents who hatch a plot to overthrow the regime.

4. Opponents who create natural and environmental disasters which may lead to economic or socio-political crisis and could be exploited by other opponents for their strategic purposes. Opponents, either in the country or overseas, can carry out actions to destroy water resources or environment, regardless of the national interests, aimed at obtaining a certain political goal. Besides that, it should be viewed in the same way that the transition between a partner and an opponent is a sensitive and complicated issue. In the history of mankind, some diplomats have had famous warning: “Nations do not have permanent friends or enemies. They have permanent interests”. This warning seems to have been increasingly clearly recognized.

Colonel Nguyen Dong Thuy

Institute for Defence Strategy