Conference of the foreign service sector

Mr. Tran Viet Truong, Chairman of the City People's Committee, and Ms. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Diep, Director of the External Relations Department, at the meeting.

On the morning of January 10, 2023, Mr. Pham Minh Chinh, Politburo member, Prime Minister of Vietnam, attended and directed the conference summarizing the work of the diplomatic sector in 2022. There was also the participation of Mr. Pham Binh Minh, Former Politburo member, former Permanent Deputy Prime Minister, together with leaders of the foreign service sector, leaders of departments, ministries, agencies, localities, key officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the overseas Vietnamese representative missions. The conference was held in both in-person and virtual forms.

At the Can Tho City point of connection, there were Mr. Tran Viet Truong, Chairman of the City People's Committee, Ms. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Diep, Director of the Department of External Relations, and other representatives of relevant departments and agencies.

Addressing the opening speech at the Conference, Mr. Bui Thanh Son, Member of the Party Central Committee, Minister of Foreign Affairs, said that the international situation in 2022 continued to experience great fluctuations, with rapid and complicated developments. Non-traditional security challenges, especially climate change, natural disasters and epidemics continued to emerge sharply. Most countries have basically returned to a normal state, but the recovery process was still difficult due to the prolonged consequences of the COVID-19 epidemic. The Minister of Foreign Affairs emphasized that the highlights of 2022 continued to firmly consolidate the favorable external situation for maintaining a peaceful and stable environment, protecting independence, sovereignty and the country's territorial integrity, serving socio-economic development and further enhancing the country's international position and prestige. Diplomatic activities at all levels, especially those of Party and State, have helped strengthen political trust, creating new impetus for expanding and deepening relations with many partners, especially neighboring countries, important partners, traditional friends and potential partners.

In 2022, there were nearly 70 diplomatic activities of key leaders both in person and online, including 14 business trips and 19 visiting delegations; many cooperation documents and agreements were signed on these occasions. In addition, diplomacy had closely coordinated with national defense and security and relevant ministries, agencies and localities to properly and promptly handle issues of border, territory, democracy, human rights and religion. At the same time, it persistently promoted dialogue and negotiation and had achieved very important results on delimitation and settlement of a number of issues at sea and on land in accordance with international law and national interests.

On the multilateral level, the diplomacy sector continued to promote its role, making active and responsible contributions to important multilateral mechanisms and forums, especially the United Nations, ASEAN, APEC, and Mekong sub-regional cooperation. In 2022, Vietnam was elected to many important international organizations such as Vice President of the United Nations General Assembly 77, member of the United Nations Human Rights Council for the term 2023-2025, and the Joint Committee of the UNESCO's Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage for the term 2022-2026.

Moreover, implementing Directive 15 of the Secretariat and the Party and State's guidelines and orientations on economic diplomacy, economic cooperation is a key content in foreign affairs activities. There have been many programs and measures to support Vietnamese localities and businesses to access new markets and connect with international partners. As a result, economic diplomacy in the past year has made practical contributions to stabilizing the macro-economy, promoting a strong recovery of the economy, attracting investment, tourism, expanding import and export turnover to exceed $700 billion.

Also at the conference, leaders of ministries, Vietnamese diplomatic missions abroad, and localities presented outstanding results of diplomatic activities in 2022 and proposed tasks and solutions to perform in 2023.

Speaking at the conference, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh highly appreciated, praised and recognized the efforts and important contributions of the foreign service sector in the past year. Regarding directions and tasks for 2023 and the coming time, the Prime Minister emphasized the necessity to continue to inherit and promote Ho Chi Minh's foreign and diplomatic identity, strictly grasp and always adhere to the policy of the 13th National Party Congress and the direction of the General Secretary at the National Foreign Affairs Conference in December 2021. In addition, the foreign service sector must give strategic advice to the Party and State on international integration and diplomatic activities and creatively apply the Party's foreign policy and guidelines.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh believed that the collective leadership and staff of the diplomatic sector will promote the achievements, have greater efforts and determination to find new motivations, inspirations and contributions to contribute to the development of the diplomacy and to develop a strong and prosperous country.