Directive No. 04-CT/TW On Continuing to Reform and Enhance the Effectiveness of People's Foreign Affairs Work in the New Situation

 DIRECTIVE

On Continuing to Reform and Enhance the Effectiveness of People's Diplomacy Work

in New Circumstances 

After 17 years of implementing Directive No. 44-CT/TW dated September 20, 1994 of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam (the Seventh Congress) on "Expanding and Reforming People's Diplomatic Activities," people's diplomacy work has made positive contributions to maintaining a peaceful and stable environment, expanding friendly relations and cooperation, creating favorable international conditions for the renewal, construction, and defense of the socialist Fatherland of Vietnam, enhancing the position and prestige of our country on the international stage, building mutual trust and understanding between the Vietnamese people and international friends, while also contributing to the common struggle for peace, national independence, democracy, and social progress. People's diplomacy has worked together with party diplomacy and state foreign affairs to create a comprehensive strength, successfully implementing the foreign policy and strategy of the Party and State.

However, the activities of some mass organizations and people's organizations have at times been passive, lacking flexibility, and not sufficiently effective; organizational structures have not been well established, coordination among people's organizations and between these organizations and specialized foreign affairs agencies of the Party and State has been insufficiently tight; research, summary, and forecasting work have not been adequately emphasized; some party committees and local governments have not fully recognized the position and role of people's diplomacy work, have not paid sufficient attention and created appropriate conditions for people's diplomacy activities; the process of institutionalizing the directive of the Political Bureau has been slow and incomplete; some cadres engaged in people's diplomacy have not met the requirements of their tasks.

Currently, the world situation is changing rapidly and complexly; the process of globalization and international integration creates both new opportunities and challenges for our country. Hostile forces are making efforts to intervene in our internal affairs through people's diplomacy activities. In light of the current situation and the tasks of the new phase, in order to continue reforming, improving the quality and effectiveness of people's diplomacy work, the Political Bureau requests that all levels of party committees, governments, the Vietnam Fatherland Front, mass organizations, and people's organizations enhance their understanding and fulfill the following tasks:

1- Viewpoint

- People's diplomacy is a component part of the overall foreign affairs work of the Party and State. Reforming and enhancing the effectiveness of people's diplomacy activities is the responsibility of the entire political system and the whole people, with the core being the Vietnam Fatherland Front, the Vietnam Association of Friendship Organizations, mass organizations, and people's organizations.

- With the principle of "proactivity, flexibility, creativity, and effectiveness," implement people's diplomacy work based on consistently adhering to the Party's foreign policy, ensuring unified leadership by the Party, centralized management by the State, and close coordination between people's diplomacy and party diplomacy and state foreign affairs, forming a comprehensive strength in the foreign affairs front.

2- Objectives

- Making the world's people understand clearly about our country, its traditions and people, the domestic and foreign policies of the Party and State, and the achievements of our renewal process; struggling against the plots and actions of hostile forces, maintaining a peaceful environment to build and develop the country.

- Building and strengthening friendly feelings between the people of other countries and our people, and between our people and the people of other countries, mobilizing resources to participate in economic and social development, seeking broad support and assistance from international friends, creating favorable conditions for the renewal, construction, and defense of the socialist Fatherland of Vietnam.

- Actively contributing to the common struggle of the world's people for peace, national independence, democracy, and social progress.

3- Tasks

- Proactively expand friendly cooperative relations with the people of other countries, attaching importance to developing deep relations with the people of neighboring countries and countries of significant importance in our foreign policy; consolidate relations with traditional friends, strengthen relations with global peace-loving and progressive forces; at the same time, expand relations with foreign organizations, individuals, and public figures,争取主动利用每一对手的积极面，限制其消极面。

- Mobilize the participation of various organizations and strata of the people in activities to combat the abuse of issues such as democracy, human rights, ethnicity, religion, and the "peaceful evolution" plot of hostile forces, defending the country's independence, sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity.

- Pay attention to cooperation in economic, cultural, educational, scientific and technological, environmental protection, etc. Actively do a good job in mobilizing resources and enhancing the effectiveness of cooperation with international organizations and non-governmental organizations from abroad, in accordance with Vietnamese laws and international practices, ensuring a harmonious combination of organizational interests and national and ethnic interests.

- Proactively improve the quality of information and propaganda work in foreign affairs, making international friends and the world's people increasingly understand correctly and comprehensively about Vietnam's land and people, the Party and State's policies and the country's renewal process. At the same time, contribute to enhancing the understanding and awareness of various strata of the people in Vietnam about the country's foreign policy, the world situation, and global issues.

- Play a role in international forums and global people's movements, actively contributing to solving global issues and the common struggle for peace, national independence, democracy, and social progress, in line with the country's capabilities, conditions, and interests.

- Strengthen research, summarization, forecasting work, timely advising the Party and State leadership on people's diplomacy work, contributing to proposing policies and strategies for the Party and State in this field.

- Effectively mobilize overseas Vietnamese communities to support the homeland, actively contribute to building and defending the country, and develop friendly relations and cooperation between our country and other countries.

- Strengthen and develop the organizational structure, cadre corps, and workforce for people's external affairs work; review, allocate, train, and enhance the capabilities of specialized cadres with firm political resolve, proficient in external affairs operations, and skilled in foreign languages to meet the requirements of people's external affairs work in the new period; provide financial, material resources, and mechanisms to ensure the activities of people's external affairs work. Provincial Party Committees, Municipal Party Committees, the Fatherland Front, mass organizations, and people's organizations shall assign a leader to be responsible for external affairs work (including people's external affairs work).

- Innovate the guidance of people's external affairs activities; implement decentralization and division of management responsibilities; improve the coordination mechanism among the Fatherland Front, mass organizations, people's organizations, and individuals participating in people's external affairs activities; strengthen close collaboration between party diplomacy, state diplomacy, and people's external affairs; intensify the guidance, inspection of people's external affairs activities.

4- Implementation Organization

- The Government's Standing Committee and the Party Group of the National Assembly shall base on this Directive to guide research, review, and promptly complete the development of legal documents regulating people's external affairs activities in accordance with the content of the Directive, with mechanisms and policies to meet the requirements and tasks of people's external affairs work in the new situation.

- Party committees, government standing committees, party groups, central-level party committees, provincial and municipal party committees shall organize the implementation and enforcement of the Directive; lead and manage people's external affairs activities at the sectoral and local levels in accordance with the Unified Management Regulations for External Activities issued together with Decision No. 295-QĐ/TW dated March 23, 2010 of the Politburo (Tenth Tenure); allocate appropriate financial resources and invest in material infrastructure for people's external affairs work.

- The Party Group of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, the Vietnam Association of Friendship Organizations, mass organizations, and people's organizations shall be responsible for organizing the implementation of the Directive and managing their organization's external activities according to the regulations of the Party and the State.

- The Central External Relations Department shall take the lead in guiding, directing, supervising, and inspecting people's external affairs activities; be responsible for coordinating the organization and implementation of important people's external affairs activities; take the lead and coordinate with relevant agencies and party committees at all levels to assist the Secretariat in guiding, disseminating, supervising, directing, and inspecting the implementation of the Directive, regularly reporting to the Central Party Secretariat on the status of people's external affairs work and the results of implementing the Directive.