Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Vu Chien Thang receives US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom

(Moha.gov.vn) - On the afternoon of January 7, 2025, at the Ministry's headquarters, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Vu Chien Thang received US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Rashad Hussain to discuss plans to promote religious freedom and other religious freedom issues in Vietnam.

Also attending the reception were Chief of the Ministry's Office Vu Dang Minh; Director of the Department of International Cooperation Chu Tuan Tu; Deputy Head of the Government Committee for Religious Affairs Nguyen Tien Trong; representatives of leaders and civil servants of a number of units under the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Deputy Minister Vu Chien Thang and Ambassador Rashad Hussain discussed at the Reception.

Speaking at the reception, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Vu Chien Thang happily welcomed the Ambassador and members of the US Embassy to visit and work with the Vietnamese Ministry of Home Affairs.

Informing the Ambassador, Deputy Minister Vu Chien Thang said that in the recent past, with the attention of relevant agencies, the two sides of Vietnam and the United States have had many positive and clear exchanges and dialogues on issues of mutual concern to promote the joint statement of the two countries' leaders on upgrading the relationship "Comprehensive strategic partnership for peace , cooperation and sustainable development". Although the declaration of comprehensive strategic cooperation between the two countries was short-lived, there have been important steps forward, in which the two sides are interested in strengthening cooperation, promoting human rights, religious freedom on the basis of respect for the law and international commitments. After the declaration of comprehensive cooperation, the two sides have strengthened cooperation in the field of religion. In 2023, Deputy Minister Vu Chien Thang led a delegation of interdisciplinary and religious dignitaries from Vietnam to visit and work in the United States (from October 10 to 22, 2023). On August 30, 2024, at the headquarters of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Vu Chien Thang received Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Allison Peters. During the discussions, the two sides listened to each other, respected each other's differences, and understood each other's core values in issues related to the field of religion. Deputy Minister Vu Chien Thang affirmed that the Ministry of Home Affairs and relevant agencies of Vietnam will, together with the United States, get to the bottom of the issues that the United States is interested in.

In response to Deputy Minister Vu Chien Thang, Ambassador Rashad Hussain respectfully thanked the Ministry of Home Affairs and Deputy Minister Vu Chien Thang for the warm welcome given to him and his delegation. Ambassador Rashad Hussain said that he was extremely honored to return to Vietnam - this was the second time he had visited and worked in Vietnam after the dialogue in 2023; at the same time, he respected and thanked the coordination and active support of the Vietnamese Ministry of Home Affairs, he was extremely excited about the relationship, the progress, and the achievements that the two sides have achieved in the past time. Ambassador Rashad Hussain said that the two countries themselves are in a transition period, the United States is preparing to move to a new administration, and Vietnam is restructuring the state apparatus. Therefore, he hopes that in the coming time, the two sides will further promote cooperation, especially within the framework of the strategic partnership between Vietnam and the United States, to be able to resolve issues related to religion in Vietnam.

The progress and results achieved in resolving religious issues have also been noted in international reports on religious issues and activities of Deputy Minister Vu Chien Thang and the interdisciplinary delegation visiting and working in the United States. Ambassador Rashad Hussain emphasized: “In previous dialogues, there were also a number of events and areas where information sources from the US side did not completely match the information sources in Vietnam. Hopefully, in the coming time, the two sides will continue to promote dialogues and exchanges to resolve differences in order to provide information and events to ensure that the US side has accurate sources of information and events to include in its reports. The US side always desires and welcomes accurate sources of information from the Ministry of Home Affairs so that colleagues at the US Embassy in Vietnam can continue to synthesize them.”

Deputy Minister Vu Chien Thang and Ambassador Rashad Hussain took a souvenir photo at the Reception.

Deputy Minister Vu Chien Thang once again affirmed that the Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam stipulates that freedom of religion is the right of everyone and promoting the resources of religions to build and protect the Fatherland - these are two core values to ensure the implementation of freedom of religion in Vietnam. Among them, people deprived of their citizenship in temporary detention camps, as well as foreigners legally residing in Vietnam, are guaranteed the right to express their religious beliefs. The Vietnamese State has provided thousands of legal religious scriptures to hundreds of temporary detention facilities to serve people who have lost their citizenship but have beliefs and religions used in temporary detention camps. This affirms the consistent policy of the Vietnamese State to ensure the freedom of belief and religion, the right to follow or not follow a religion of the people, ensuring equality and non-discrimination for reasons of religion and belief, including people deprived of their citizenship and foreigners.

Deputy Minister Vu Chien Thang also emphasized Vietnam's achievements in ensuring freedom of belief and religion. Some local incidents related to religion that the Ambassador mentioned were isolated incidents due to subjective perceptions and lack of experience of grassroots officials, not policies or popularization. The government has taken action and handled them according to regulations. The Prime Minister of Vietnam has approved the Project on training skills for officials working in religious affairs at commune, district and provincial levels nationwide to improve awareness and skills in dealing with religious issues. In 2023 and 2024, the Vietnamese Ministry of Home Affairs has amended Decree 162/2017/ND-CP, supplemented and issued Decree 95/2023/ND-CP with more open contents to facilitate religious activities; The central state management agency has organized 25 training courses on legal knowledge and professional skills for about 2,500 delegates who are officials and civil servants working in the field of belief and religion and the team of reporters on belief and religion work organized in localities; the Provincial People's Committee has organized 1,012 training courses on legal knowledge and professional skills in state management of religion for 71,030 officials and civil servants working in the field of religion in localities, contributing to improving the quality and effectiveness of state management of belief and religion. In addition, the relationship between Vietnam and the Vatican has upgraded the relationship of Resident Special Envoy and the Holy See has established a Resident Representative Office in Vietnam. In the coming time, the Ministry of Home Affairs will summarize the implementation of the Law on Belief and Religion to report to competent authorities to amend and supplement regulations in accordance with the practical situation.

Deputy Minister Vu Chien Thang expressed his hope that “The US Commission on International Religious Freedom and the Ambassador play a very important role in assessing religious freedom in countries. I hope that with the role of Ambassador Rashad Hussain, he will have an objective and positive perspective and information to promptly contribute comments on the contents and issues that the Ambassador is interested in, together recognizing the true nature of the issue so that both sides can make appropriate adjustments towards the most important core value of human freedom, religious freedom is actively developed in Vietnam in accordance with the laws, customs, cultural traditions of Vietnam, international commitments and cooperation agreements between Vietnam and the United States” .

Deputy Minister Vu Chien Thang hopes that in the coming time, the US side will strengthen cooperation with Vietnam to implement a number of contents such as: issues agreed between the two sides will not be included in the next recommendations; visits to religious establishments, groups of believers or religious communities in Vietnam should choose legal religious organizations, groups of believers, and religious communities in Vietnam; limit the selection of places of groups of believers and religious communities in remote areas that have not registered for religious activities or have a direction of operation contrary to the customs, cultural traditions of the Vietnamese people, and violate Vietnamese law. At the same time, he proposed that the US side implement a number of contents such as: inviting Vietnam to participate in international forums on religion and human rights organized by the US Department of State to learn from experience in building institutions on human rights in Vietnam and skills in dealing with religious issues related to international treaties; It is necessary to be selective in exchanging information with a number of Vietnamese individuals and organizations in the United States who lack goodwill towards Vietnam and have activities opposing religious organizations in the country; in the role of the US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom during his term, he requested the Ambassador to soon remove Vietnam from the Special Watch List (WSL) and not put it on the list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC).

Vietnam welcomes international delegations to Vietnam to learn about the situation of beliefs and religions, however, they must do so in a spirit of goodwill, constructiveness, respect for objectivity, compliance with legal regulations and recommendations of the Vietnamese Government during the visit and work.