PM underlines 2023 tasks for diplomatic sector

PM Pham Minh Chinh speaks at the diplomatic sector’s conference on January 10. (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – The focal task of the diplomatic sector is to serve sustainable and self-reliant national development and to guarantee national interests at the highest possible level, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh told the sector’s teleconference on January 10.

Addressing the event, he said that in 2022, external relations with world powers and most of the key partners were promoted comprehensively as seen in the nearly 70 high-level diplomatic activities by Party and State leaders, including the 14 visits by Vietnamese leaders to 17 countries, the participation in five multilateral conferences, hundreds of bilateral meetings with world leaders, and the trips to Vietnam by 19 foreign leaders.

A highlight of the sector last year was the preparation for the official visit to China by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and good advice made for Vietnam to have appropriate response to the Russia - Ukraine conflict, he noted.

Diplomatic activities in 2022 were substantive and increasingly stable and sustainable, the Government leader said, applauding encouraging results of multilateral, vaccine, and economic diplomacy, the protection of and care for overseas Vietnamese, along with border demarcation and marker planting.

Participants in the event in Hanoi (Photo: VNA)

PM Chinh asked the diplomatic sector and relevant agencies to grasp the tasks of firmly maintaining peace, stability, independence, soveireignty, and socio-political stability; continuing to develop relations with partners in a substantive, stable, and sustainable manner; and improving the “strategic” nature of ties with neighbouring and world powers, as well as strategic and comprehensive partners.

He demanded all-level authorities and sectors seek new opportunities, markets, and areas; maximise chances in the international environment and external resources; and strongly bring into play the role of economic diplomacy in expanding and diversifying export markets.

In addition, it is necessary to press on with popularising the image of Vietnam; promoting the country’s stature; showing its role in and contributions to regional and global peace, security, and development; helping strengthen ASEAN solidarity and build the ASEAN Community; and proactively taking part in the establishment and shaping of rules and mechanisms in the region and the world to defend Vietnam’s interests, he went on.

The PM also requested stronger coordination among the Party, State, National Assembly, and people-to-people diplomacy, adding that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs needs to bolster ties with other forces involved in diplomatic activities, especially provinces with land and maritime boundaries, to protect the Fatherland early and from afar./.

VNA