In the new era, the task of safeguarding the Fatherland poses greater and more complex requirements, and remains a fundamental and enduring mission of the entire Party, people, and armed forces, and it must be carried out through the comprehensive strength of the nation; in which each component of that strength must be promoted to a new height, marked by breakthroughs and leaps forward.

According to the documents for Party cell activities in December 2024, the new era is a historic phase characterised by significant progress, renovation, or transformation across various areas: technology, society, economy, and politics, leading to profound changes in the way people live and work. Accordingly, this new era - the development era of the Vietnamese nation - is a period of strong, decisive, positive, striving, and confident movements to overcome challenges, surpass oneself, realise the aspiration to reach the target, and achieve great achievements.

The goal of the Vietnamese revolution is to build a country with prosperous people; strong nation, socialist, democracy, fairness, and civilisation society, and to stand shoulder to shoulder with major countries of the five continents. Successfully implementing the strategic goals by 2030, Vietnam will become a developing country with modern industry and high average income; by 2045, it will become a developed socialist country with high income. The comprehensive renovation of the country with great achievements of historical and epochal significance, bringing our country to the foundation, potential, position, and international prestige as it is today, is the starting point of the development era, the period of starting, accumulating energy and momentum for the nation to rise; is the inheritance of achievements and promotion of the country’s innovation and development.

Troops of Division 361 under the Air Defence and Air Force anticipate in the Hanoi 2024 defensive exercise

To effectively achieve these goals, we must resolutely implement a series of strategic breakthroughs, including: achieving breakthroughs and accelerated development across all areas of social life, elevating the nation to a new height and advancing in step with the times; making breakthroughs in thinking and awareness; and unlocking and optimally mobilising the country’s untapped potential. At the same time, it is crucial to maximise the internal drivers of national development, especially the spirit of patriotism, national pride, self-reliance, resilience, and the creative aspiration and dedication of the entire population. Enhance the leadership and governance capacity of the Party, building the Party truly embodies ethics, civility, and serves as a shining example of the intellect, honour, and conscience of the nation and the era. These are fundamental principles for national construction and development in the era of national development.

In this new era, the two strategic tasks of successfully building socialism and firmly defending the socialist Fatherland of Vietnam are both facing many opportunities and challenges. Accordingly, along with planning issues on national construction and development, issues on national defence also need to be clearly defined, with scientific and appropriate steps and solutions. In the era of national development, as well as the task of building the country have to inherit the achievements and promote innovation, the task of protecting the Fatherland also have to fully and thoroughly comply with the contents outlined in the 2023 Nation Protection Strategy, with a number of key contents: firmly protect independence, sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity; protect the Party, government, People and socialist regime; protect the cause of industrialisation and modernisation of the country; protect the country’s international position and prestige; protect human security, political security, a peaceful and stable environment for national construction and development, etc.

To effectively address this issue, first and foremost, it is essential to clearly identify the core objectives of national defence in the era of national development. Enhancing the capacity to firmly safeguard national independence, sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity is not only the protection of sacred national interests but also the safeguarding of the fundamental and prerequisite conditions for our nation to successfully realise its aspirations in this new era. Protecting the Party, the government, the People, and the socialist regime means defending the decisive elements and the essential conditions for achieving the goals set for the new era. Safeguarding the Party’s leadership, the government governance and administration, and the socialist regime is, in essence, protecting the political system closely tied to the working class and the nation - this is precisely the primary and most aggressive target of hostile forces. Protecting the people is about safeguarding the nation’s primary source of strength, protecting human security, and the capacity for both spiritual and material mobilisation, including the determined will, patriotism, heroic traditions, diligence, creativity, and rich cultural and humanistic values, along with the people’s aspiration to build a prosperous nation in this era of national development. Protecting peace and stability for national construction and development is about preserving the most fundamental conditions for national construction and development, safeguarding political security, economic security, energy security, human security, social security, and cybersecurity are of foundational importance. Defending the cause of industrialisation and modernisation is a fundamental, breakthrough content and a pillar of national development in the new era. In reality, no country can achieve sustainable development without embarking on a robust path of industrialisation and modernisation; especially through the development of heavy industry, core technologies, modern infrastructure serving the people’s livelihood, national energy infrastructures, expressways, high-speed rail systems, ports, airports, nuclear power plants, cultural landmarks, and strategic defence facilities - priority targets requiring comprehensive protection.

Artillery Regiment 452 of the Hanoi Capital Command in the Hanoi defensive area exercise 2024

Secondly, further improve the quality of building a whole people national defence and people’s security posture. In the era of national development, it is necessary to invest in developing a high-quality whole people national defence and people’s security, ensuring that national defence and security potential matches the achievements of socio-economic development, particularly by strengthening economic potential as the material foundation to successfully fulfill national defence and security tasks. It is essential to enhance the integration of economic development with national defence and security at a higher level, and to invest in the defence and security industry in line with the growth of a modern national industry, ensuring increasingly advanced quality of weapons and technical equipment for the armed forces. Building a whole people force with new quality, quality from high-quality human resources of a developed economy. Building a revolutionary, disciplined, elite, modern People’s Army and People’s Police, valuing modern factors; the people, weapons, and equipment of the Army and Police must be at a new level, far surpassing the current standard. Military and Police officers and cadres must be professionals of the modern industrial era, equipped with advanced weaponry, technology, and tactics, especially in terms of firepower, mobility, and combat capability across multiple domains: long-range, high-altitude, naval, underground, night operations, and in all weather condition, enhance the effectiveness of crime prevention, ensure national security, and meet the evolving requirements of national defence task. Building a whole people national defence and people’s security posture with enhanced quality and increased stability, especially through the construction of defence infrastructure in maritime, island, and border areas, and the development of a high quality “people’s heart and mind posture”, rooted in the country’s high-quality human resources.

Thirdly, continue flexibly and creatively applying the viewpoint of protecting the Fatherland “early and from afar”, and “before the threat emerges”. The era of national development is the era of our nation’s strong striving and rise with outstanding and excellent achievements, in such an era, while numerous opportunities arise, the challenges are also substantial, particularly the fierce resistance from hostile forces in the context of the complicated, volatile, and unpredictable world and regional situation. Therefore, in this new era, it is crucial to proactively defend the Fatherland “early and from afar”, “before the threat emerges”, with the spirit of anticipating, forecasting, preparing for, and addressing potential issues that we have to confront in the future. Emphasis must be placed on forecasting, especially strategic forecasting, such as anticipating conflicts of interest in expanding international economic cooperation, potential contradictions among the people, within the internal system, and risks that may cause instability, conflicts, or war during the process of socio-economic development. Promote the work of summarising practices and researching theories on the path to socialism in our country in the era of development. As this is a key target of sabotage by hostile forces, it is vital to eliminate internal limitations and weaknesses that they may exploit to undermine our Party, government, and people. Based on these forecasts, it is imperative to proactively formulate plans to prevent and repel conflicts, risks that may cause instability and risks of conflict, and wars “early and from afar”, ensuring firm protection of the achievements gained during the national development era.

Fourthly, strengthen the protection of national interests in international relations. In this new era, international cooperation is constantly expanding, especially international economic cooperation, in which Vietnam’s national interests abroad are very large. Therefore, the protection of national interests, including Vietnam’s economic interests abroad must be enhanced and pursued with greater effectiveness. During the process of international integration, the national interest must always be placed above all, with a steadfast commitment to preserving independence and autonomy, ensuring that the country does not fall into isolation, confrontation, or dependence. It is necessary to persistently and resolutely defend Vietnam’s core values in international relations, including the values of its political system, its cultural identity within the global community, and its foreign policy principles. Protect the economic interests of Vietnam and the interest of Vietnamese companies, enterprises, economic groups, businesses and people abroad. Protect and constantly enhance the position and prestige of Vietnam in the international community, thereby gradually establishing a defence line, creating a security belt outside the territory and national borders, proactively safeguarding the Fatherland “early and from afar”, “before the threat emerges”.

It can be affirmed that in this new era - the era of national development, the mission of safeguarding the Fatherland remains a fundamental, regular, and crucial duty of the entire Party, people, and armed forces. In this era, the comprehensive national strength used to defend the country must be elevated significantly, with breakthroughs that lead to a qualitative leap in all elements of the comprehensive national strength.

Lieutenant General, Assoc. Prof., Dr. TRAN THAI BINH