Journey to become Vietnamese Ambassador to Israel

Over 80 years of development and growth, the Diplomatic sector has always devoted itself to serving the country, marking glorious pages of history that were nurtured by the intelligence and dedication of many generations of cadres under the leadership of the Party and the guidance of President Ho Chi Minh - the founder and the one who gave wings to the sector to rise in the cause of fighting for independence, building and defending the Fatherland.

Ambassador Ly Duc Trung delivered a welcoming speech to the delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang who visited and worked with officials and staff of the Vietnamese Representative Office in Israel on July 23, 2023. (Source: VNA)

I myself, a person born when the country was peaceful and unified, grew up when the Diplomatic Service was tested through many difficult times of the Fatherland, many generations of diplomatic officers were trained and matured. The Diplomatic Service has now celebrated its 80th anniversary, and I was fortunate to have "had a relationship" with the Service since 1995.

Fate with Diplomacy

At that time, the Academy of International Relations, now the Diplomatic Academy, had just reopened university admissions for three years (since 1993). I still remember that in the summer of 1995, there were several thousand high school graduates across the country registering for the university entrance exam at the Academy of International Relations (we studied English, so we called it IIR - "who who a"). By the time we entered school in late September and early October, more than 200 of us had become students of the Academy, a school under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - with a long tradition, founded in 1959. In 1995, the school was still as simple as the Vietnamese economy in the early period of Doi Moi. On graduation day, nearly 450 students of our two courses K21 and K22 received their diplomas on September 12, 1999 because from course 22, the study program was shortened from 5 years to 4.5 years and later to 4 years.

After graduating, for various reasons, I decided to find an opportunity to learn something more without starting a job right away. However, I always had the thought that “I must try my best to learn a profession and then do it”. Then that day came, I was lucky to pass the recruitment exam for the Ministry at the end of 2002. On November 28 of that year, I received the recruitment decision and officially received the salary of a trainee specialist at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from December 1, 2002.

After being recruited, we were able to attend a pre-civil service class, where more than 50 of us new civil servants and officials were trained and equipped with knowledge about ideological stance, public administration, returned to our roots, participated in hypothetical situations about bilateral and multilateral relations, about the second Gulf War in 2003... Before that, a group of nearly 10 of us were able to help the Organizing Committee of the Conference commemorating the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Paris Agreement (January 27, 1973 - January 27, 2003) on ending the war and restoring peace in Vietnam.

The few months of pre-service also left us with many emotions, preparing us quite “full” to officially enter the path of “civil servants”. It was also during that time, through thematic activities and field trips, that we “invented” the concept of “xe ve” – specialist (CV 02) which was later continued to be used for both previous and subsequent recruitment rounds. Typical activities such as Returning to the Source, Diplomatic Youth Gala, Training for Expanded Union Cadres, Youth Sports Festival… also originated from the activities and ideas of CV 02.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Israel Ly Duc Trung. (Source: Vietnamese Embassy in Israel)

Growing up in the Translation Room

After completing the pre-service program, I was assigned to work at the Translation Department, later the National Translation and Interpretation Center (2008), the Foreign Translation and Interpretation Department (2022) and currently the State Protocol and Foreign Interpretation Department.

While working at the Interpretation Department, I was able to participate in serving most of the country's major foreign affairs activities, from organizing the annual celebration of National Day on September 2nd to celebrating major holidays, high-level conferences such as ASEP III and ASEM 5 (2004), the 50th anniversary of Dien Bien Phu Victory, the 30th anniversary of the Liberation of the South and national reunification... We also participated in activities such as translation and interpretation to serve international integration at the grassroots level such as "Field Festival" with farmers, conferences to promote culture, trade, tourism and investment, including the 22nd SEA Games in 2003.

In October 2005, I was sent to attend a conference interpreting skills training course sponsored and organized by the European Commission – EC. For more than 5 months, we were taught and guided by experts and interpreters of the European Union in practicing consecutive and simultaneous interpreting skills (cabin), learned about the EU, and visited specialized agencies of the Union. After that course, I returned to Hanoi in February 2006, very confident because I was “fully” equipped with the skills to participate in APEC Vietnam Year 2006. Indeed, APEC 2006 helped me grow up remarkably, not only being able to confidently accompany Party and State leaders in foreign affairs activities, but also participating in cabin interpreting and being a team leader, instructing European interpreting skills for cabins in other languages such as Chinese, Russian, Japanese, Korean, etc.

The 2006 Senior Week ended, everything was almost perfect for me. At that time, the Australian Government announced that it would accept applications for the AusAid – ADS postgraduate scholarship program, later known as AAS. The head of the Translation Department encouraged and allowed me to apply, and then I was put on the Fast Track list, so in June 2007, I was in Melbourne to study for the Master of Diplomacy and Trade program that lasted until December 31, 2008.

Ambassador Ly Duc Trung with delegates attending an event in Tel Aviv. (Source: Vietnamese Embassy in Israel)

During my time studying in Melbourne, the Translation Department was organized into the National Translation and Interpretation Center (from June 10, 2008). It was also fortunate that when I returned to Vietnam in January 2009, the Center's leaders decided to continue training and education for me, appointing me as Deputy Head of the General Administration Department (April) and then Head of the Department (October 2009). 2010 was a wonderful year for the country and foreign affairs as well as the Diplomatic sector. At that time, we celebrated the 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long - Hanoi, receiving the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Certificate for Thang Long Imperial Citadel. This is one of the events of historical significance for the country and people of Vietnam.

Also at the beginning of 2010, we celebrated the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of Vietnam and assumed the ASEAN Chairmanship 2010. I was able to attend most of the related foreign affairs activities, participate in organizing dozens of different events, conferences and seminars during the ASEAN Chairmanship 2010 and was the MC for the Closing Ceremony of the 17th ASEAN Summit - an event that marked a major milestone in the country's international and regional integration.

Warm handshakes after 30 years

On December 30, 2010, the Ministry issued a decision to recognize me as a Deputy Director of the Department. From January 2011 to March 2013, I continued to participate in professional activities of translation and interpretation and teaching translation and interpretation skills with increasing intensity, participating more deeply in parliamentary diplomacy activities and then exactly 10 years after finishing the pre-service program, I was appointed as Deputy Director of the Department - Deputy Director of the National Translation and Interpretation Center.

Then at the end of 2013, when our National Assembly was preparing to organize the 132nd Inter-Parliamentary Union General Assembly in March-April 2015, the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs Committee proposed and I was given the "green light" to be seconded as Deputy Head of the IPU-132 National Secretariat until the end of April 2015. At the end of 2015, I was assigned by the Ministry to work as Counselor - Second Person (Deputy Head of Representative Office/Deputy Ambassador) at the Vietnamese Embassy in Spain.

Ambassador Ly Duc Trung with international students at an event introducing Vietnam in Israel. (Source: Vietnamese Embassy in Israel)

After completing my mission in Spain and returning to Vietnam in March 2019, I returned to the National Translation and Interpretation Center to work, witnessing the signing of the EVFTA Free Trade Agreement between Vietnam and the European Union on June 30, 2019. In September 2019, I was assigned to participate in a high-level theoretical training program and, in parallel, a training program for senior experts. By June 2021, I had completed all training programs, including national security and defense training for target 2. In the context of the complicated developments of the Covid-19 pandemic both at home and abroad, I volunteered to register for a term of duty as the head of the Representative Office. On October 17, 2021, the President signed a decision to nominate me as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to the State of Israel.

After a period of preparation, on May 8, 2022, I set foot on the Holy Land and officially took up my post. Thus, exactly 20 years after being officially recruited into the Foreign Service, I became the Ambassador to Israel, a place about 2,000 km from the land where the story of "One Thousand and One Nights" originated, but with a great affinity with Israel. Thirty years after entering the Foreign Service in September 1995, from a student eager to know what a "warm handshake" was like, I was able to receive many "warm handshakes" from international and Israeli friends congratulating me on completing my mission in Israel.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/hanh-trinh-tro-thanh-dai-su-viet-nam-tai-israel-323656.html