Sen. Lt. Gen. Phan Van Giang, member of Politburo, Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People’s Army, and Deputy Minister of National Defence, speaks at the national teleconference on March 28. (Photo: VNA)

Speaking on the second day of the national event to disseminate the resolution of the 13th National Party Congress, Giang said all those who respect the independence and sovereignty of, set up and expand the friendship and equitable and win-win cooperation with Vietnam are partners of the country.

Any forces that hatch plots or take actions to sabotage Vietnam’s national construction and safeguarding goals, to overthrow the socialist regime, or violate the country’s independence, sovereignty, and interests are the antagonists of the country, he went on.

Talking about the new perceptions and mindset about Vietnam’s national defence, he noted that the strength to protect the Fatherland comes from the great national solidarity; the combination of the strength of the people and the era; the country’s integrated strength in terms of politics, economy, culture, society, culture, defence, security, and diplomacy; and the strength of the entire political system and the entire people under the Party’s leadership and the State’s management, with the armed forces being the core.

The 13th National Party Congress has defined that consolidating national defence and safeguarding the Fatherland is an “essential and regular” task and also a prerequisite for performing the core duty of developing the economy, while a developed economy and a stronger country will be an effective way to safeguard the nation.

This is the fundamental theoretical viewpoint that dominates and decides all the contents about national defence and Fatherland safeguarding in the new context, the Deputy Minister said.

In terms of the all-people national defence, Giang said it is built on the foundation of national politics, spiritual strength, human resources, material resources, and finance, and building the all-people national defence comprises of building defence potential, defence forces and the all-people defence posture.

The official also highlighted the task of improving the effectiveness of international integration and defence diplomacy so as to make use of every resource for defence capacity building. According to him, defence diplomacy is important to the building of all-people national defence so as to bring into play the strength of the people and the era and create a solid foundation for safeguarding the Fatherland early and from afar.

Defence diplomacy has become one of the pillars of the Party, State, people’s diplomacy, he added./.

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