New thinking and awareness about national defense and protecting the homeland.

Continuing the National Conference on studying, understanding, and implementing the Resolution of the 14th National Congress of the Party, on the afternoon of February 7th, General Phan Van Giang, Member of the Political Bureau, Deputy Secretary of the Central Military Commission, and Minister of National Defense, presented a专题 (special topic) on "New thinking and understanding on national defense and protection of the Fatherland" from the 14th National Congress.

Báo Tin Tức•07/02/2026

The combined strength of the entire nation

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General Phan Van Giang, Member of the Political Bureau and Minister of National Defense , presents the thematic paper: "New Thinking and Awareness on National Defense and the Protection of the Fatherland of the 14th National Congress". Photo: Phuong Hoa/TTXVN

Opening the session, General Phan Van Giang clearly stated: National defense is the undertaking of defending the country with the combined strength of the entire nation, in which military strength is the defining characteristic, and the people's armed forces are the core. The viewpoint on national defense and protecting the Fatherland is an important part of the Party's system of revolutionary leadership viewpoints and guidelines, serving as a "guiding principle" for the entire Party, the entire people, and the entire army in fulfilling the task of protecting the Fatherland.

Based on a thorough review of practical experience, an objective assessment of contemporary trends, and the global , regional, and domestic situations, the 14th National Congress of the Party identified groundbreaking strategic policies, affirming the determination and aspirations of the entire Party, people, and army in the era of striving to build a prosperous and thriving country, in which the field of national defense and protection of the Fatherland has made new strides.

General Phan Van Giang's introduction consists of two parts. The first part: "The necessity of having new thinking and awareness about national defense and protecting the Fatherland in the era of national progress." The second part: "New thinking and awareness about national defense and protecting the Fatherland in the documents of the 14th Party Congress."

In both theoretical understanding and practical implementation, our Party has always remained faithful to and creatively applied the theories of Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh Thought, and inherited the tradition of nation-building coupled with national defense to lead and direct the cause of national defense and protection of the Fatherland in accordance with the practical situation in each stage of the revolution. The world is undergoing enormous changes, with rapid, complex, and unpredictable developments. Peace, cooperation, and development remain the dominant trends, but face many new challenges. Strategic competition among major powers, conflicts, and wars are occurring in many regions in more complex and intense forms...

Domestically, after 40 years of reform, the country's overall strength, international prestige, and people's trust have been increasingly enhanced, creating important prerequisites for building and defending the Fatherland. The revolution in streamlining the organizational structure of the political system, along with strategic decisions, is opening up historical opportunities and turning points for the country's strong development in the new era, including the development of human resources, and the art and science and technology of military and national defense.

However, the cause of building and defending the socialist Vietnamese Fatherland, alongside opportunities and advantages, also faces numerous difficulties and challenges. Hostile and reactionary forces continue to carry out many schemes and conspiracies to undermine the Party, the State, and the regime. Traditional security challenges are becoming increasingly serious, especially cybersecurity and terrorism, while non-traditional security threats such as natural disasters and epidemics are extremely complex and difficult to predict.

Developing a new mindset for the Party regarding the task of national defense and safeguarding the Fatherland.

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Conference scene. Photo: Phuong Hoa/VNA

General Phan Van Giang affirmed that at the 14th National Congress, the Party thoroughly discussed and decided on strategic policies on national defense with a new mindset.

Regarding national defense and safeguarding the Fatherland, the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam determined: To protect the highest national interests; to steadfastly and firmly defend the independence, sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity of the Fatherland; to protect the Party, the State, the people, and the socialist system; to protect the achievements of the revolution, the cause of reform, industrialization, and modernization; to preserve and promote the traditional values of national culture; to enhance the country's international standing; to firmly protect national security, regime security, human security, economic security, data security, and cybersecurity; to strengthen all-people national defense, proactive defense, and to prevent and repel early on factors causing political instability from within; to maintain political security and social order; and to maintain and consolidate a peaceful environment for national development.

The 14th National Congress inherited and developed the contents on national defense from previous congresses, while adding the goal of "ensuring the highest national interests" above all else; "protecting the country's prestige and international standing," "protecting human security," "economic security, cybersecurity"; "strengthening all-people national defense, proactive defense; preventing and repelling early factors causing political instability from within," maintaining and consolidating a peaceful environment for national development.

This viewpoint and policy profoundly reflects the Party's evolving thinking on national defense and safeguarding the Fatherland. It serves as a strategic direction for the entire Party, the entire people, and the entire army to focus on effectively implementing national defense tasks and firmly protecting the Vietnamese Fatherland in the new situation.

Regarding national defense tasks, the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam determined that strengthening national defense and firmly protecting the socialist Fatherland of Vietnam is a crucial and ongoing task of the Party, the State, the political system, and the entire people, with the People's Army as the core but with further development; affirming that strengthening national defense and security and promoting foreign relations and international integration are crucial and ongoing; building a strong and modern all-people national defense; building proactive and solid defense zones; developing a comprehensive national defense posture plan linked to the economic, cultural, social, and foreign relations development of the country, as well as each region and locality, in accordance with the new administrative boundaries and new forms of warfare and modern combat methods; effectively carrying out civil defense tasks, and fully preparing forces, means, and plans to carry out the army's combat tasks in peacetime.

According to General Phan Van Giang, the 14th National Congress also determined to strengthen the national potential and overall strength, enhance the ability to mobilize and meet the requirements in all defense situations; building national defense potential must continue to be a synchronized and unified development of potentials such as political potential, economic potential, cultural and social potential, scientific and technological potential, and military potential; building these potentials must begin with building a military posture based on the people, with building a solid "people's support" as the key.

Regarding the task of building a revolutionary, regular, elite, and modern People's Army, the 13th Party Congress determined that by 2025, the army would be fundamentally built to be lean, efficient, and strong, creating a solid foundation for striving to build a revolutionary, regular, elite, and modern People's Army by 2030. The 14th Party Congress affirmed: Building a revolutionary, regular, elite, and modern People's Army.

"Thus, our Party has set this target five years earlier than what was set out at the 13th National Congress," General Phan Van Giang affirmed.

Thoroughly implementing the Resolution of the 14th National Congress of the Party on building a revolutionary, regular, elite, and modern army; the General Secretary's directives on "2 steadfast principles: Steadfast adherence to the Party's military and national defense policies; steadfast commitment to building a politically strong army"; "2 strong initiatives": Strengthening the building of a revolutionary, regular, elite, and modern people's army; strengthening international integration and defense diplomacy; "2 preventions": Preventing the risks of war and conflict; preventing all manifestations of ideological and political degradation, moral decay, lifestyle deviations, "self-evolution," and "self-transformation" within the Party Committee of the Army and the entire army; "5 strong principles": Strong politics, strong discipline, strong technology, strong military art, and strong soldiers' living standards"; and the goal of "resolutely researching and producing advanced and modern weapons and equipment."

Perform the three basic functions effectively, adapting to the new situation.

General Phan Van Giang emphasized that for over 80 years, the Army has always performed its three functions well: "fighting force, working force, and labor and production force." However, it is now necessary to clarify further in this period that: In fulfilling its function as a fighting force, the People's Army is built to be revolutionary, regular, elite, and modern; strong in politics, ideology, and organization; absolutely loyal to the Party, the Fatherland, and the people; organized to be lean, efficient, and strong, with a synchronized and rational structure among its components and forces; between the standing and reserve forces; and with local military organizations arranged in sync with the two-tiered local government organization.

Following President Ho Chi Minh's principle of "people first, weapons second," since 2017, the Army has implemented the motto "The quality of training at the school is the combat readiness of the unit"; focusing on improving the quality of training, education, and instruction; training in mastering weapons and equipment, especially modern weapons and equipment; improving the quality of various types of exercises; and building a high-quality human resource pool...

In its role as a working force, the People's Army has always been a core force participating in mass mobilization work and building the grassroots political system. The Army is determined: Come to the people when they need you, don't wait until the people need you or request the Army to be there. In the context of many non-traditional security challenges, the Army always stands alongside all organizations and the people, not only preventing and combating but also mitigating the consequences, building new infrastructure, and meeting the urgent needs of the people after each storm, flood, and natural disaster...

In their function as productive labor forces, corporations, units, and defense-economic zones have effectively played a role in socio-economic development in general, and particularly in remote, border, and island areas; in key projects; contributing to strengthening national defense and security, firmly protecting national sovereignty; and building villages and hamlets into strong defensive bulwarks along the country's borders...

Regarding the development of militia and self-defense forces, the 14th National Congress continued to affirm the goal of building strong and widespread militia and self-defense forces across all regions and at sea.

The 14th National Congress also identified the need to accelerate breakthroughs in the development of a self-reliant, self-sufficient, self-strengthening, dual-use, and modern defense industry. Along with reaffirming the dual-use and modern nature of the 13th National Congress's documents, the 14th National Congress added elements such as self-reliance, self-sufficiency, and self-strengthening in the development of the defense industry to leverage domestic resources and move towards strategic autonomy throughout the entire process from research to production and development...

In addition, the military is promoting international integration and defense diplomacy; actively and effectively participating in United Nations peacekeeping operations, humanitarian assistance, search and rescue, disaster relief, and post-war recovery..., with the motto of being proactive, flexible, substantive, effective, and comprehensive in both bilateral and multilateral relations.

Concluding the session, General Phan Van Giang emphasized that the new thinking and understanding on national defense and protection of the Fatherland in the documents of the 14th Party Congress are major, correct policies of strategic significance, the result of a profound summation of the Party's leadership in consolidating national defense and protecting the Fatherland; inheriting and developing the traditions and experiences of fighting invaders and defending the country of the nation.

Thoroughly understanding and successfully implementing the Party's guidelines and viewpoints on national defense and safeguarding the Fatherland is the responsibility of the entire Party, the entire people, and the entire army; it is a strategy for defending the country early and from afar, even before it is in danger; maintaining political stability and a peaceful environment to build a strong, prosperous, civilized, and happy country, steadily advancing towards socialism.

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/thoi-su/tu-duy-nhan-thuc-moi-ve-quoc-phong-bao-ve-to-quoc-20260207161552196.htm