In 2017, according to anticipation of the world and regional situation, peace, cooperation and development will still be the mainstream. However, there remain complications and potential risks. As for our country, besides advantages, there are a number of difficulties and challenges, particularly sabotage of hostile forces by the strategies of “Peaceful evolution”, “self evolution”, “self transformation” and “Military depoliticization”. Our struggle for national independence, sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity will be faced with several challenges. These have set out hard tasks and high requirements for the Military, including the tasks of training and combat readiness. To successfully accomplish these important tasks as a basis for enhancing the overall quality and combat strength of the Military so that it will uphold its core role in the firm protection of national independence, sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity, it is necessary that the whole Military, first and foremost, its party committees and commanders at all levels should promote their responsibilities and implement the following measures synchronously:

Lt. Gen. Phan Van Giang addressing at the 2016 military - political conference

1. Strengthening education and briefing to make a considerable change in the awareness and responsibility of officers and soldiers for the tasks of training and combat readiness. Agencies and units in the Military, first and foremost, party committees, commanders, political commissars, and junior commissars at all levels should further grasp the Party’s viewpoints and guidelines on military and defense; resolutions, directives of the Central Military Commission (CMC) and the Ministry of National Defense (NMD) on the tasks of training and combat readiness. Party committees and commanders at all levels should usually pay attention to their leadership and direction on political education and ideological orientation for soldiers so that they are strongly determined to surmount all hardships and challenges to accomplish the tasks of training and combat readiness. The Party and political work should be done regularly in all activities and tasks of soldiers in which the most important ones are training and combat readiness. Therefore, they should be done inclusively and the work of political and ideological education should be linked with the acceleration of the Determined to Win movement and the Drive of “Promoting tradition, dedicating talent, deserving to be Uncle Ho soldiers” and the implementation of the Directive No.5-CT/TW of the Politburo (12^th tenure) on studying and following Ho Chi Minh’s thought, moral and style to create a momentum for successfully realizing the goals and targets of training and combat readiness.

2. Grasping and having exact anticipation of the situation, actively making all round preparation to deal successfully with situations for firmly protecting the Homeland. Facing the fast changing and complication of the world, regional situation, the international integration context, the interconnection between partner and opponent, it is necessary that agencies and units in the Military should grasp and have exact anticipation of the situation, particularly in military and defense fields. On this basis, they are to advise the CMC and MND to propose to the Party and State guidelines and strategies for Homeland protection and strategies to prevent and timely and effectively deal with incidents, not to let themselves be passive and not to let hostile forces carry out their sabotage.

3. Enhancing the management, direction over the task of training. This is one of the four renewals in training that military units should strictly adhere to. In particular, attaching importance to the perfection and enhancement of effectiveness of the mechanism on management, direction of training in accordance with the Resolution No.765-NQ/QUTW of the CMC to ensure “concentration, unity, synchronicity, effectiveness” and have a clear responsibility appointment for strategic, operational and tactical agencies to meet the requirements of training in the new situation.

4. Having renewals in the content, model and method of training. To meet the requirement of enhancing the quality of training, it is necessary to continue to have further renewals in this field. First and foremost, there should be renewals in the content of training to fit Vietnamese military art as well as the development of opponent and new combat condition. During training process, units should combine closely military training with political education; educational training with combat training; training with regularity building and disciplining. Training should be relevant to the mission and suitable with each object, area of operation, combat plan and focus on practice.

5. Having sufficient supply for the tasks of training and combat readiness. Up to now, there is a high demand for material, weapons, equipment and budget for the tasks of training and combat readiness with the budget constraint. Therefore, the whole Military is to promote their self-reliance and actively mobilize resources for the tasks of training and combat readiness towards the direction of “scientific, effective and opportune”. Functional agencies should continue to study, compile, supplement and finalize the system of training documents, particularly those on new weapons and equipment; new combat models and newly-established forces. At the same time, units should further study, improve, produce and upgrade training facilities and apply information technology into training and exercise. Units should continue to promote their internal potentials; uphold initiatives and technical improvement in the improvement and upgradation of training facilities; strictly adhere to the MND’s directive on the abandonment of expired and poor quality weapons and technical weapon in training and combat readiness; thoroughly carry out technical and logistic support; minimize the accidents in training and combat readiness.

Promoting the fine tradition and nature of the Military and the experience and achievements gained, the whole Military are to strive to accomplish well its tasks to ensure good training and combat readiness for the firm protection of the Homeland in the new situation.

Lt. Gen. Phan Van Giang

Member of the Party Central Committee

Chief of the General Staff, VPA

Deputy Minister of National Defense