Over the two years of enforcement, the Law on the Vietnam Coast Guard has proved to be a “sharp tool” for implementing law at sea.
Soldiers of the Vietnam Coast Guard Region 1 practice firing at sea (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – Over
the two years of enforcement, the Law on the Vietnam Coast Guard has proved to
be a “sharp tool” for implementing law at sea.
The law, officially taking
effect on July 1, 2019, consists of eight chapters with 41 articles. It regulates
the position, functions, tasks, authority, organisation, and activities of the
Vietnam Coast Guard; benefits and policies for the force; and responsibilities
of relevant agencies, organisations, and individuals.
Assessing the law’s
enforcement over the last two years, Maj. Gen. Bui Quoc Oai, Political
Commissar of the Vietnam Coast Guard, said the law has helped improve all-level
authorities, sectors, and people’s awareness and legal consciousness about the
state management over the country’s seas and islands by law, along with the
force’s position, role, functions, and tasks.
Based on the law’s
stipulations on the force’s apparatus, personnel, and equipment, active and
effective moves have been made to build an elite, lean, and strong Vietnam Coast
Guard, thus better performing its tasks in the new context.
Oai noted thanks to the
enforcement of the law, the force’s coordination with military units and
relevant agencies of ministries, sectors, and localities in safeguarding the
maritime sovereignty and enforcing law at sea has been carried out more
strictly and also fruitfully.
The Vietnam Coast Guard has
enhanced relations with law enforcement forces of other ASEAN countries, as
well as the countries whose sea areas are adjacent to Vietnam’s, in conformity
with the Party and State’s viewpoints on defence diplomacy and national
safeguarding.
Communications have also been
boosted to engage people in the formation of the people-based security position
at sea and to strengthen fishermen’s trust, the officer went on.
He added that in the time
ahead, the Vietnam Coast Guard High Command is pushing ahead with information
dissemination to help people gain a better understanding of the law-based state
management over seas and islands while encouraging the people to join the force
in protecting national sovereignty and interest at sea and maintaining
security, order, and safety for the country’s sacred maritime and insular areas.
Located next to the sea,
Vietnam boasts a sea area of more than 1 million sq.km., nearly 3,000 islands
and archipelagoes, and a coastline over 3,260km long.
In the face of recent complex
developments in the East Sea, particularly violations of the maritime
sovereignty, smuggling, piracy, and fishing boats’ infringements of territorial
waters, the Law on the Vietnam Coast Guard has proved itself to be a “sharp
tool” and the legal basis for the coast guard force to implement law at sea,
thereby helping to manage and safeguard the country’s sovereignty, sovereign
right, and jurisdiction and guarantee order and safety in Vietnam’s sea
areas./.