Grasping and implementing the Resolution of the 13^th Party Central Committee’s 8^th Plenum on the Strategy for Fatherland Protection in the New Situation, the Party Committee and Command of the Vietnam Coast Guard (VCG) have concentrated their leadership and direction on raising the effectiveness of situational research and assessment as the basis for proposing strategies to successfully handle defence and security situations, maintain security and safety at sea, and firmly protect national sovereignty over seas and islands.

Researching and correctly assessing the situation at sea to proactively propose measures and projects for national security protection and law enforcement represent one of the VCG’s routine central political tasks. It is a difficult task as our country’s sea is very large, and Vietnam shares a maritime boundary with many other countries; meanwhile, the situation and particularly violations of law at sea have complex, unpredictable developments. For that reason, over the years, the VCG has focused on well performing the work of situational research and assessment to assist the Central Military Commission (CMC) and the Ministry of National Defence (MND) in advising the Party and State on many lines and projects for dealing with defence and security situations, firmly protecting national sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction, maintaining security and safety at sea. Since 2021, the VCG has collected nearly 2,000 pieces of reconnaissance and general news and made more than 80 specialised reports for the MND to release directives to the whole Military. It should be noted that the VCG has just cooperated with the Border Guard Force Command in making a ministerial-level specialised report on law violation in the border, sea, and island area to be submitted to the Government, while proposing a lot of measures to opportunely, effectively, flexibly, lawfully deal with situations at sea, thus making contributions to managing and firmly protecting seas and islands, maintaining peace and stability for national development.

Enhancing international cooperation in exchanging information and combating violations of law at sea

Currently and in the upcoming years, it is forecasted that the situation in the East Sea will continue to be complex. A number of countries are deploying more military, law enforcement, and fishing ships to dispute our fishing grounds, conduct surveys, and violate Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone. Foreign vessels’ violations of Vietnam’s sea, violations of other countries’ seas and illegal, unreported, unregulated fishing (IUU) committed by Vietnamese vessels as well as smuggling, trade frauds, and drug crimes continue to be complex. Meanwhile, the organisational structure and equipment of the VCG’s units in charge of grasping the situation at sea are still limited; the sea of responsibility is large; the weather conditions at sea are very complex; the VCG’s coordination with other competent forces has yet to satisfy the task requirements. Against that backdrop, in order to well perform all functions and assigned tasks, a part from other pieces of work, the VCG’s Party Committee and Command will focus their leadership and direction on raising the effectiveness of situational research and assessment, with emphasis placed on several main measures as follows.

First, bringing into play all forces’ synergy, raising the quality and effectiveness of studying and assessing the security and safety situation at sea, particularly non-traditional security issues. This is a matter of principle to ensuring the objectivity, science, and accuracy of situational research and assessment. Hence, the VCG’s Party Committee and Command will continue to direct offices and units to closely, seriously implement the tasks of situational grasp and management set in resolutions and directives by the Party, State, CMC, and MND on defence-security maintenance and marine economic development. Due attention will be paid to “grasping the situation, opportunely detecting and effectively handling adverse elements, particularly the risk of a sudden upheaval and traditional security and non-traditional security challenges”, which has been stipulated in the Resolution of the 13^th Party Central Committee’s 8^th Plenum on the Strategy for Fatherland Protection in the New Situation, with a view to making a huge positive change in the awareness and responsibility of each cadre and soldier, particularly the force in charge of grasping the maritime security and safety situation. The above-mentioned line will be concretised into targets and solutions in routine resolutions and action plans/programs.

Currently, non-traditional security issues are developing in a rapid, complex manner; it is likely that they will transform into traditional security ones. Therefore, the VCG, especially its reconnaissance units will closely cooperate with relevant forces in grasping the situation in the key seas, keeping a close watch on foreign oil rigs and research, military, law enforcement, and fishing vessels operating within the seas of their responsibility, and monitoring Vietnamese fishing vessels operating in the seas bordering and overlapping with other countries as well as cargo and commercial ships with the signs of law violation. At the same time, the VCG will actively manage issues concerning transnational crime, terrorism, drug crime, human trafficking, arms smuggling, money laundering, international economic crime, and hi-tech crime. Grounded on the management of those issues, it will provide in-depth, accurate forecasts about situational development, particularly new strategic-level issues as the basis for formulating strategies to deal with situations and prevent non-traditional security issues that could threaten maritime security, order, and safety as well as peace and stability on regional and global scales.

The VCG Command inspects a patrol to ensure security and safety at sea

Second, continuing to accelerate the modernisation of equipment and means for collecting information and grasping the situation. Over the years, the VCG has been provided with modern equipment, vessels, and specialised devices. However, the quality and quantity of the VCG’s equipment have been still limited as units of the VCG have to work continuously in the harsh weather conditions at sea for a long time. Against that backdrop, the VCG Command will continue to effectively implement Resolution 594-NQ/ĐU dated 20 July 2022 by the VCG Party Committee and its Plan 7118/KH-BTL dated 25 July 2022 on the organisation of the VCG in the period of 2021 – 2030 and beyond in tandem with the Project on “building the VCG towards 2025 and beyond”. To that end, the VCG’s Party Committee and Command will give advice to higher echelons on mobilising all resources to modernise the system of technical equipment, ensuring that it will be synchronised, highly manoeuvrable, versatile, and capable of meeting the requirements of managing and protecting national sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction at sea. In the medium term, priority will be given to acquiring a number of modern vessels which can operate at sea for a long time, adapt themselves to adverse weather conditions, and be equipped with modern, synchronous observation and communication systems for a number of key areas. In the long term, the VCG will advise the MND to develop large-displacement vessels, flight vehicles, command, observation, communication, and reconnaissance systems, support tools, and equipment for safety, search, and rescue that are synchronised, modern, and capable of operating in the complex weather conditions, facilitating combat coordination, and fostering international cooperation. Besides, significance will be attached to training cadres and employees so that they will be able to master hi-tech equipment and quickly collect and analyse information to assist their commanders in opportunely, correctly settling situations.

Third, fostering cooperation with other forces in grasping, studying, and exchanging information about security, order, and safety at sea. As the core force in law enforcement and national security protection at sea, over the years, the VCG has given advice on synchronously building the system of legal documents on coordination between forces, particularly the Law on Vietnam Coast Guard (2018) and the Government’s Decree 61/2019/NĐ-CP dated 10 July 2019 “Detailing several terms and measures to implement the Law on Vietnam Coast Guard”. Grounded on those documents, the VCG Command has signed regulations, plans, and programs on coordination with 3 focal points of the MND and 8 focal points of other ministries, sectors, and ministerial-level agencies. At the same time, it has directed its offices and units to sign 75 regulations, programs, and plans on coordination with units of the Public Security Force, Border Guard Force, Customs, and Market Management within coastal provinces and municipalities. Doing so has helped create synergy in terms of force, posture, and legality to raise the effectiveness of grasping, studying, and assessing the security, order, and safety situation at sea. In order to further improve the performance of this task, in the upcoming time, the VCG will continue to cooperate with other forces in closely executing the signed regulations, programs, and plans, while actively proposing methods of coordination with relevant competent forces to formulate mechanisms for grasping and exchanging information, ensuring that those mechanisms will be “activated” to opportunely deal with situations when necessary. Besides, units of the VCG will continue to maintain cooperation to more practically, effectively carry out mass mobilisation work, with the aim of fostering unity and a close-knit bond with the people, providing support for fishermen at sea, contributing to building a firm posture of defence and security at sea, and encouraging fishermen to grasp, report, and exchange necessary information.

Fourth, enhancing international cooperation in information exchange at sea. Currently, the VCG is maintaining cooperation with marine law enforcement forces from 21 countries and international organisations and joining 5 multilateral mechanisms and forums; it has signed 9 documents on cooperation with South Korea, the Philippines, the US, India, Japan, China, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Via those mechanisms, the VCG has cooperated with countries and international organisations, particularly Vietnam’s neighbours in grasping and exchanging information about the security, order, and safety situation at sea. Against the complex, unpredictable developments in the East Sea and an increase in crimes and law violations at sea, particularly smuggling, trade frauds, drug trafficking, illegal immigration, and IUU, the VCG will continue to thoroughly grasp foreign policies of the Party, State, CMC, and MND, especially the CMC’s Resolution 2662-NQ/QUTW dated 26 February 2024 on international integration and defence diplomacy towards 2030 and beyond and the Government’s Decree 22/2016/NĐ-CP dated 31 March 2016 on defence diplomacy regulations. It will step up delegation exchange programs, information exchange, joint patrols, and bilateral conferences with marine law enforcement forces of Vietnam’s neighbours and other regional countries in order to build and sustainably develop reliable, stable bilateral cooperative relations. It will continue to actively, responsibly take part in multilateral mechanisms and foster its cooperation with embassies of other countries in Vietnam in terms of maritime security, order, and safety. At the same time, it will establish relations with coast guard forces of major powers in the world in order to learn from their experience and take advantage of their support for equipment and training to improve its capability in grasping the security, order, and safety situation at sea.

In addition to those above-mentioned measures, the VCG will actively apply information technology and adopt its basic specialised measures to manage its areas of responsibility, grasp the situation, and quickly detect artifices. With the rapid technological development, public information about vessels at sea is easily found via different channels, such as maritime notice and cruise monitoring websites. Those channels act as a source of direct, rapid, diverse information about operations at sea. Therefore, the VCG will continue to step up the application of information technology to maximise this source of information, while closely cooperating with competent forces and agencies in exchanging and verifying information to guarantee the high accuracy. Also, the VCG will proactively apply information technology to receiving information about crimes and law violations at sea from the people, particularly from organisations and individuals directly operating at sea; it will build extensive information networks at sea to collect and verify information about the situation as the basis for developing programs/plans against crimes and law violations or giving advice on dealing with situations relating to security and safety at sea according to its functions and tasks.

Thoroughly grasping the Strategy for Fatherland Protection in the New Situation, the VCG will continue to synchronously adopt measures of situational research and assessment as the basis for well performing its core role in law enforcement and security maintenance at sea and making contributions to fostering sustainable marine economic development and firmly protecting national sovereignty over seas and islands.

Maj. Gen. LE QUANG DAO

Commander of the VCG