Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Le Hoai Trung (Photo: VNA) Trung wrote that 2020 was a successful year forVietnam with numerous important activities carried out in a proactive,flexible, and creative manner in all channels and pillars, thus bringing aboutimpressive results.
In particular, Vietnam performed well and mademany active and responsible contributions as a non-permanent member of theUNSC, helping maintain and promote a peaceful and stable environment forsocio-economic development and its stature and power enhancement.
The official said Vietnam skillfully andproperly dealt with many complex issues and those with contradictory viewpointsamong countries in the spirit of concurrently affirming its principled stanceof independence, upholding common efforts towards consensus, and preventing thepoliticisation of issues or confrontation and division among parties.
It also actively contributed to or proposedinitiatives, strived to act as an intermediary in some complicated issues, andplayed a leading role via chairing a number of events, thus leaving imprints onthe issues, matching the concern and interest of the country, the region, andthe international community, according to Trung.
The deputy minister elaborated that theseimprints could be seen in not only January 2020, the time Vietnam served as thePresident of the UNSC, when an open debate on upholding the UN Charter tomaintain international peace and security was held with a record of 111speakers from 106 states and the adoption of the first President statementcalling for a full compliance with the Charter. A meeting on the cooperationbetween the UN and regional and sub-regional organisations also took place inthe month, creating the first platform for discussing cooperation between theUNSC and ASEAN.
A number of significant activities were heldthroughout last year, Trung said, highlighting Party General Secretary andState President Nguyen Phu Trong, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, NationalAssembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, and Deputy Prime Minister and ForeignMinister Pham Binh Minh attending and delivering videoed speeches at high-levelactivities within the framework of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly,which affirmed Vietnam’s strong commitment to multilateral cooperation and theUN’s central role in solving common global challenges, including those relatingto peace and security.
In his article, Trung also pointed out that thecountry fulfilled the dual roles of a non-permanent UNSC member and the Chairof ASEAN in 2020, thereby helping to promote and uphold ASEAN’s solidarity androle, connect the bloc with the UN and the UNSC, and realise some of ASEAN’s global-levelcommitments to maintaining regional and international peace and stability.
Vietnam fulfilled well the duties of anon-permanent UNSC member in the first year of its membership and achieved theset targets, he said.
In 2021, the regional and internationalpolitical - security situation, especially the COVID-19 pandemic and the strategiccompetition among the powers, is forecast to remain complex and unpredictable withdirect effects on the UNSC’s activities. This is also the first year for theimplementation of the 13th National Party Congress’s resolution with majordevelopment orientations and targets for the next five and ten years, andvision to 2045.
In the spirit of “partnership for sustainablepeace”, Vietnam will persist the foreign policy of independence and self-relianceand making efforts to promote dialogue, ease tensions and confrontation, andlook for fair and reasonable solutions to regional and global peace andsecurity issues on the basis of international law and the UN Charter, theofficial noted.
He affirmed that the second month of Vietnam’sUNSC presidency this April will be a highlight of the country’s participationin 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 encouragingoutcomes in 2020 provide a solid foundation for Vietnam to bolster itsproactive and active engagement in the UNSC in its second year of the councilmembership, thus helping protect and promote national interests and sustainpeace and security in the region and the world at large, Deputy Minister Trungadded./.
VNA
