Improving the law enforcement at sea is an urgent requirement for the Vietnam Coast Guard in the new era. Clearly understanding this issue, Vietnam Coast Guard has been drastically and synchronously making many measures to imlement this work effectively in order to confirm the core role in protecting the sovereignty and maintaining the security and safety at sea.

Over the past few years, there have existed many complex and unpredictable issues in the East Sea. That foreign military vessels, law enforcement vessels and fishing boats have been conducting their reconnaissance, research, discovery, illegal fishing and trespassing Vietnamese waters is still in a complex situation. Besides, activities of foreign-related crimes, transnational crimes, smuggling, commercial fraud, drug and arms trafficking, and foreign fishing boats trespassing Vietnamese waters are happening in an increasingly complicated manner.

Conducting training at sea

Being a core and professional force in enforcing law and protecting security and safety at sea, recently, Vietnam Coast Guard has drastically and synchronously taken various measures in order to maintain sovereignty and ensure the security and safety at sea. With the active engagement by all-level party committees and commands, and the endeavour by all cadres and soldiers, the law enforcement at sea has gained important results. Notably, the Vietnam Coast Guard has proactively held, analysed, evaluated and accurately forecast the security at sea; increased the patrol, control, struggle and effectively handle criminal activities and law violations at sea; the coordination with other functional authorities and the law enforcement forces from other countries has been improved regularly, strictly and effectively, making contribution to maintaining the order, security and sovereignty at sea.

In the forthcoming time, the situation in the East Sea is forecast to continuously contain threats of instability; sovereign security, law violations, transnational crimes, foreign-related violations, smuggling, trade frauds at sea, etc. are bound to have complex development with increasingly complicated schemes and methods, careful organisation, modern vehicles and equipment, etc. Meanwhile, the capacity regarding ships, weapons, technical equipment of the Vietnam Coast Guard, though being invested and upgraded, has failed to keep up with the task requirements; moreover, it is the large areas of operation, and extreme weather and climate conditions at sea, etc. that cause serious effects to the task completion. In order to further improve the efficiency of law enforcement at sea, and successfully accomplish all functions and tasks assigned by the Party and State, the Vietnam Coast Guard continues to implement synchronously and effectively various solutions, focusing on some key solutions as follows:

Firstly, strengthening the organisation and staff, building the “red and expert” Coast Guard. This is an important solution, which plays a decisive role in accomplishing the task of law enforcement at sea of the Vietnam Coast Guard. Accordingly, it continues to advise the Central Military Commission, Ministry of National Defence to speed up the implementation progress of Projects on building the Coast Guard to 2020 and the following years; strengthens the organisation and staff, planning and training of cadres, building the Coast Guard in the way of being elite, compact, strong, professional, modernised, proficient in military operations, legal affairs, and foreign affairs, meeting the task requirements in the new situation.

Conducting law enforcement at sea

Vietnam Coast Guard pays attention to grasping and training cadres and soldiers in general, the forces performing the law enforcement at sea in particular to have a stable political stance, high professional knowledge and proficiency, high vigilance against schemes and plots by hostile forces and criminals, avoid temptation, skillfully and flexibly solve any arising situations at sea in compliance with the guidelines, strategies, legal regulations, and jurisdiction. It also focuses on further training to improve the technical, tactical, and professional proficiency; increasing training at night and in adverse weather conditions; attaching more importance to training on handling modern weapons and technical equipment, dealing with various situations in all conditions, contributing to improving the overall quality, combat power, and capability of management and law enforcement at sea.

Secondly, enhancing the modernisation of weapons and technical equipment. Along with personnel, weapons, equipment and technical vehicles are crucial factors in improving the deterrent capacity and law enforcement effectiveness. Therefore, Vietnam Coast Guard proactively advises and proposes to the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of National Defence to invest in purchasing synchronous and modern professional equipment for the law enforcement at sea forces. This includes the implementation of projects on newly building vessels for the Coast Guard to safeguard the sovereignty over islands and seas to 2030 and the following years, focusing on large-displacement multipurpose patrol vessels which are equipped with high-level automation systems, able to operate in longer time at sea, deploy rapidly and effectively handle any situations in the complicated weather conditions.

Together, the Coast Guard also improves its quality of research and application of science and technology, and digital transformation in commanding, operating, managing the ship building, and mastering modern weapons and technical equipment; builds the system of smart depots, automation, and digitalisation; applies the artificial intelligence in modernising the command-control system at sea; link and integrate the database centre and the digital platforms of Vietnam Coast Guard; increases the use of reconnaissance aircrafts, unmanned vehicles including UAV, UUV, and USV combined with satellite data and long-range radars in order to detect violating targets from afar. The Coast Guard also focuses on building the uninterrupted communication system from the Coast Guard Command Centre to the Commands of Coast Guard regions and reconnaissance vessels to give timely directions and operations; proactively coordinates with shipyards to either newly build or repair ships, boats, weapons, technical equipment and vehicles, meeting the task requirements.

Thirdly, reviewing and completing the system of legal documents. The Coast Guard shall advise the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of National Defence to propose to the National Assembly and Government to build and complete the system of legal documents on the delimitation of maritime zones, making contribution to minimise the disagreements and risk of conflicts over sovereignty disputes among countries, focusing on completing the regulations on the procedures for inspection, control and handling of administrative violations, the criminal investigation methods and authorities within the maritime zones, exclusive economic zones and continental shelf of the Fatherland; amending the Law on Vietnam Coast Guard 2018, the maritime delimitation agreement with other countries and other documents related to the task of protecting sovereignty over islands and seas.

The Coast Guard also proactively advises functional authorities to research and make the law compatible with international treaties; review the regulations on maritime security, avoiding piracy, protecting the maritime environment and preventing the illegal fishing, making them appropriate to the international standards, through which, to improve the law enforcement effectiveness, and create a consensus in conducting the joint patrol with the maritime law enforcement forces from other regional countries.

Conducting patrol at sea

Fourthly, improving the quality of professional work. This is the solution for transforming the advantages of equipment, facilities and law to the real effectiveness. The Coast Guard professional work consists of the skillful combination of military reconnaissance, criminal investigation and maritime administrative management. It is necessary to implement 07 solutions of the coast guard work, focusing on the solutions related to the legal, professional and armed measures. This is a firmly legal foundation for the Vietnam Coast Guard to perform their assigned functions, tasks and authorities, which is considered the core factor for the maritime law enforcement.

In the situation when transnational criminals are taking advantages of high technology to make violations, the quality improvement of the maritime law enforcement is no longer a choice but a vital requirement. Accordingly, the Coast Guard needs to pay attention to building a multi-layered network of reconnaissance, closely combining between the modern techniques and traditional ones; improving the capability of researching, analysing and summarising information in order to accurately anticipate any “hot spots” of smuggling, trading frauds, sovereignty security, violations, and crimes; enhancing the capability of investigation and dealing with violations in the spirit of upholding the law.

Fifthly, strengthening the coordination with functional organs and the law enforcement forces from other countries. Vietnam Coast Guard coordinates with other forces of the Navy, Customs, Border Guard, Police, etc. to bring into play the overall power, improve and reinforce the people’s security posture at sea; regularly coordinates with the party committees and governments of all coastal provinces and cities to give propaganda and education of law, mobilise the people to actively take part in struggling against and preventing crimes and violations at sea; strengthens the “people’s hearts and minds” posture at sea, builds the reliable network of institutions from fishing trade unions, cargo vessels and from workers who are working on oil rigs, promotes the “eyes and ears” of fishermen working at sea; closely combines the people’s security posture with the all-people national defence posture; builds and completes the interdisciplinary coordination mechanism among forces in order to bring into play the overall power into the maritime law enforcement.

The Coast Guard continues to coordinate and widen the cooperation with other countries, create the consensus, limit disagreements and differences, enhance the understanding and trust for a peaceful, friendly, cooperative and developed maritime environment. It also maintains and expands direct communication channels with the law enforcement forces from other countries; participates actively and responsibly in multilateral mechanisms and forums such as the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP), the Heads of Asian Coast Guard Agencies Meeting (HACGAM), the Southeast Asian Maritime Law Enforcement Agencies Initiatives (SEAMLEI), the Coast Guard Global Summit (CGGS), etc.

It also increases the coordination in joint patrols, and joint exercises on search and rescue, anti-piracy and the prevention of marine pollution, etc., through which, to not only improve the all-round capability for the Vietnam Coast Guard but also build the strategic trust between Vietnam and the partner countries, affirming the status, prestige and professional capability of the Vietnam Coast Guard in law enforcement.

Major General TRAN VAN LUONG, Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff of the Vietnam Coast Guard