Hanoi (VNA) – The 16th National Assembly continued its first extraordinary session in Hanoi on August 4, with group debates on the draft Law on the Prevention and Control of the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and a bill amending and supplementing several articles of nine military and national defence laws.
Party General Secretary and State President To Lam, who also serves as Secretary of the Central Military Commission, said the revisions are vital to navigate a rapidly changing global landscape and meeting requirements for the country's rapid development.
To avoid squandering opportunities and falling behind, the legal and institutional systems must undergo a top-to-bottom review, with legislation brought closer to reality and, where needed, designed to “stay ahead” to create growth rather than scrambling to plug holes after a crisis hits, he said.
On the military and defence law amendments, he said professionalising commanders of commune-level Military Commands is the right step so that core militia and self-defence forces receive effective guidance.
On political commissars, he described the mechanism of absolute Party leadership over the army in every aspect as uniquely distinctive and effective. At the top, the Party General Secretary leads the Central Military Commission; at the provincial level, the provincial Party chief acts as Secretary of the provincial Military Command's Party Committee. Extending that same blueprint to the commune level, with the communal Party Committee Secretary taking the role, would pull the full weight of the political system and the whole population behind national defence and security missions, he said.
Gen. Nguyen Tan Cuong, Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People’s Army and Deputy Minister of National Defence, who is also a deputy from Dong Thap province, stressed that commune-level Military Commands must be organised to match what they are actually asked to do, with the right personnel, vehicles, equipment, offices, training grounds, and exercise space all falling into place.
Commenting on the WMD non-proliferation bill, deputy Luu Nam Tien from Hanoi expressed his support for its urgent enactment. The legislation, he said, is imperative to institutionalise the Party’s policy of safeguarding the fatherland early and from afar, complete the legal framework for international treaty obligations, and fix cracks in a regulatory regime now largely patched together by government decrees./.
