The Ministry of Foreign Affairs held a conference reviewing the performance of tasks in the first half of 2021: Continuing to deepen ties with partners, promote multilateral diplomacy and heighten the country’s position and power

Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son attended and delivered a keynote speech at the Conference on the morning of July 12, 2021. After two sessions on foreign affairs and diplomacy development, the Conference recorded many in-depth opinions, assessed notable new developments in the world and regional situation as well as the results of the implementation of the cooperation activities, foreign affairs activities, and diplomacy development in the first half of 2021. Thereby, the Conference identified the major guidelines that need to be prioritized in the last 6 months of 2021.

It was widely agreed by delegates that the world situation in the past time has made positive progress in disease control, gradual economic recovery and reopening, increasing cooperation, dialogues and multilateralism; however, there are still complicated and unpredictable changes with many potential risks, including the most prominent agent being the COVID-19 pandemic which is still at risk of a strong outbreak, even in nations with high vaccination rates and in Southeast Asia.

The delegates also  claimed that, with the determination to implement the foreign policy put forward by the 13th National Party Congress and in the context of the increasing pandemic, foreign affairs works in the first 6 months of 2021 have been done actively, flexibly, and creatively. Thereby, positive results have been achieved, contributing to the Government's concerted efforts to realise the "twin goals", continuing to deepen ties with partners and promoting multilateral diplomacy and raising the country's position and power.

In just 6 months, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has contributed to promoting 35 phone talks between top Vietnamese leaders and those of foreign partners (higher than the total number of high-level phone talks in 2020, which is 34), initially organized and participated in a number of direct foreign relations activities since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, implemented "vaccine diplomacy",  actively contributed to the realization of twin goals as well as achievements in prevention and control pandemic of the country. As Vietnam continues to assume the role of a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for the 2020-2021 term, Vietnam's multilateral diplomacy has been prioritized to promote a variety of activities, highly evaluated by the international community.

The panelists at the Conference also showed that the quality of research, forecasting, and foreign policy advice has been improved; the integration and economic diplomacy  for development have been promoted, focusing on trade promotion, removing difficulties for businesses and localities, and adapting to the trend of "Green Transformation", "Digital Transformation" in the world.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has properly assessed the situation, advised and handled promptly issues related to sovereignty and territory, effectively deployed external information work, promoted information on digital platforms, actively carried out overseas Vietnamese citizen protection work as well as cultural diplomacy. The coordination between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other ministries and agencies were focused and implemented effectively.

Regarding the development of diplomacy sector, the delegates assessed that from the beginning of 2021, the works of administrative reform, payroll management, official management as well as training, and recruitment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been seriously implemented. Among them, forms of online training have been promoted and teams of cadres who are united, intelligent, brave, dedicated and professional have been built.

The works of Party and other organizations have been actively researched, studied, fully understood and implemented The Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress to all domestic officials and employees and overseas Vietnamese representative agencies

Delivering a keynote speech at the Conference, Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son highly appreciated the reports and presentations at the Conference. He also praised the great efforts of all officials and employees of the diplomacy sector to overcome many difficulties and challenges in order to successfully carry out foreign affairs missions over the past time.

The minister emphasized that the current world situation is being greatly affected by the extremely complicated, unpredictable and possibly prolonged developments of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to many new problems and trends. Therefore, the foreign affairs staff should continue to do well in forecasting, researching and advising; besides, they should prioritize the development of important strategies and projects in order to successfully implement the foreign policy of the 13th National Party Congress.

Minister Bui Thanh Son directed the diplomatic sector to adhere to reality, the Government's priorities and foreign policy put forward by the 13th National Party Congress, implement synchronously and comprehensively both bilateral and multilateral diplomacy, improve the efficiency of international economic integration, economic diplomacy for development, cultural diplomacy,  information for foreign affairs, border and territory work, and overseas Vietnamese tasks

In addition, it is necessary to enhance better coordination between State diplomacy and Party, National Assembly and people-to-people diplomacy, and between diplomacy, national defense, security and local foreign affairs.

At the end of the Conference, delivering a speech on diplomatic sector development, Minister Bui Thanh Son suggested that the whole sector strive to realize the goal of building a comprehensive and modern diplomacy, promoting the pioneering role of foreign affairs, and implementing currently won the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress.