Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Le Hoai Trung (Photo: VNA) – In 2020, Vietnam
secured breakthrough success in diplomacy despite adverse impacts of the
COVID-19 pandemic, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Le Hoai Trung affirmed in
a recent article reviewing the first year of the country’s non-permanent
membership of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
Trung wrote that 2020 was a successful year for
Vietnam with numerous important activities carried out in a proactive,
flexible, and creative manner in all channels and pillars, thus bringing about
impressive results.
In particular, Vietnam performed well and made
many active and responsible contributions as a non-permanent member of the
UNSC, helping maintain and promote a peaceful and stable environment for
socio-economic development and its stature and power enhancement.
The official said Vietnam skillfully and
properly dealt with many complex issues and those with contradictory viewpoints
among countries in the spirit of concurrently affirming its principled stance
of independence, upholding common efforts towards consensus, and preventing the
politicisation of issues or confrontation and division among parties.
It also actively contributed to or proposed
initiatives, strived to act as an intermediary in some complicated issues, and
played a leading role via chairing a number of events, thus leaving imprints on
the issues, matching the concern and interest of the country, the region, and
the international community, according to Trung.
The deputy minister elaborated that these
imprints could be seen in not only January 2020, the time Vietnam served as the
President of the UNSC, when an open debate on upholding the UN Charter to
maintain international peace and security was held with a record of 111
speakers from 106 states and the adoption of the first President statement
calling for a full compliance with the Charter. A meeting on the cooperation
between the UN and regional and sub-regional organisations also took place in
the month, creating the first platform for discussing cooperation between the
UNSC and ASEAN.
A number of significant activities were held
throughout last year, Trung said, highlighting Party General Secretary and
State President Nguyen Phu Trong, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, National
Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign
Minister Pham Binh Minh attending and delivering videoed speeches at high-level
activities within the framework of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly,
which affirmed Vietnam’s strong commitment to multilateral cooperation and the
UN’s central role in solving common global challenges, including those relating
to peace and security.
In his article, Trung also pointed out that the
country fulfilled the dual roles of a non-permanent UNSC member and the Chair
of ASEAN in 2020, thereby helping to promote and uphold ASEAN’s solidarity and
role, connect the bloc with the UN and the UNSC, and realise some of ASEAN’s global-level
commitments to maintaining regional and international peace and stability.
Vietnam fulfilled well the duties of a
non-permanent UNSC member in the first year of its membership and achieved the
set targets, he said.
In 2021, the regional and international
political - security situation, especially the COVID-19 pandemic and the strategic
competition among the powers, is forecast to remain complex and unpredictable with
direct effects on the UNSC’s activities. This is also the first year for the
implementation of the 13th National Party Congress’s resolution with major
development orientations and targets for the next five and ten years, and
vision to 2045.
In the spirit of “partnership for sustainable
peace”, Vietnam will persist the foreign policy of independence and self-reliance
and making efforts to promote dialogue, ease tensions and confrontation, and
look for fair and reasonable solutions to regional and global peace and
security issues on the basis of international law and the UN Charter, the
official noted.
He affirmed that the second month of Vietnam’s
UNSC presidency this April will be a highlight of the country’s participation
in the council in 2021 with many more meaningful and substantive contributions.
The achievements of the 35 years of “Doi moi”
(Renewal), the country’s growing stature and power, along with the encouraging
outcomes in 2020 provide a solid foundation for Vietnam to bolster its
proactive and active engagement in the UNSC in its second year of the council
membership, thus helping protect and promote national interests and sustain
peace and security in the region and the world at large, Deputy Minister Trung
added./.