The 13th National Party Congress held in Hanoi from January 25 to February 1 was the biggest conference in the history of the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP). During the weeklong event, the incumbent VCP General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong was reelected Party chief for an unprecedented third term. Eighteen members of the Politburo, headed by the 76-year-old Trong, and supported by the 200 members of the Central Committee, have thus been tasked with leading Vietnam through a time of uncertainty.
Held once every five years, the VCP’s National Congress is the biggest exercise of the collective policy-making in Vietnam. At the conclave, delegates help set Vietnam’s national security, foreign policy, defense, and development strategies, as well as high-level personnel selection for the coming five-year term, and often beyond. The adoption of Vietnam’s foreign policy at the congress, therefore, has consequential policy implications. The 13th Party Congress resolution on foreign policy, which emphasized the importance of diplomacy, was approved unanimously. More importantly, it demonstrated efforts to galvanize internal support for Vietnam’s diplomatic strategy, given the involvement of 1,587 delegates representing all sectors, agencies, and levels of government. And for the first time in the last 15 years, four senior diplomats gained seats on the Central Committee, while the current deputy prime minister, Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh, won a seat on the Politburo. These above highlights will help Vietnam promote inter-agency coordination and a whole-of-government approach to foreign affairs.
The Political Report of the 13th Party Congress stressed that Vietnam would continue to implement its longstanding foreign policy doctrine of independence, self-reliance, diversification, and multilateralization. It also reaffirmed the “four nos” of the co ..
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