The full speech of the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Viet Nam at the Communist Party of China and World Political Parties Summit

 Nguyễn Phú Trọng, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam said:

Comrade Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, President of the People’s Republic of China,

Representatives of the world political parties and organisations,

Distinguished participants,

It is a great honour and pleasure for me to attend the Communist Party of China and World Political Parties Summit on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. First of all, on behalf of the Party, the State and the people of Viet Nam, I would like to extend my warmest congratulations to the Party, the Government and fraternal people of China on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, and my heartfelt greetings to all participants to the Summit.

Over the past 100 years, the Communist Party of China has led the Chinese people to attain great historic achievements, many of which have been admired by the international community. We would like to extend our sincerest congratulations to the Communist Party and the people of China on those achievements and believe that, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, in which General Secretary, President Xi Jinping is the nucleus, the people of China will continue to conquer new greater achievements, building China into a modern, prosperous, strong, democratic, civilised, harmonious and beautiful socialist country.

On the basis of the foreign policy of independence, autonomy, peace, friendship, cooperation and development, multilateralisation and diversification, rooted in the tradition of pure internationalism and with great significance attached to the long-standing friendship between the two Parties and the two countries, Viet Nam and China, the delegation of the Communist Party of Viet Nam attended this Summit in an open-minded and cooperative will to exchange thoughts with other political parties on the topic “Working for the Happiness of the People: Mission of our Political Parties”.

During his lifetime, President Ho Chi Minh, the founder of the Communist Party of Viet Nam, the great leader of the Vietnamese nation, who was honoured by UNESCO as a Hero of National Liberation and a Great Man of Culture of Viet Nam, once said: “The people are the most precious, the most important, the ultimate”, “Nothing under the sky is as precious as the people. Nothing in this world is as powerful as the united force of the people”. I believe that our distinguished participants here would share this view because the people are not only the social foundation, the source of strength of political parties and political organisations, yet also at the same time the goal, the target of the guidelines, policies of every country and each true political party.

The pursuit of happiness is the legitimate aspiration and right of all people. That is the dearest dream of a good society in which everyone is comprehensively and fully developed; everyone is enabled to live a prosperous, happy life in peace; everyone enjoys equality and love, support to each other. In addition to those shared wishes, people in each country and each region have their own justifiable concerns such as ending wars and conflicts, eliminating social inequality, poverty, combating climate change, and preventing diseases.

Peace, cooperation and development are still the major trends of the world. However, people of all countries are also facing severe challenges of tension, ongoing wars, risks of economic backwardness and social instability, traditional as well as non-traditional security threats. The socio-economic crises, socio-political instability, climate change, environmental pollution, terrorist activities, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic have been exerting profound impacts on all aspects of global socio-economic life as well as human life.

In the role of important socio-political organisations in nations, at the same time an important subject in international relations, political parties and socio-political organisations need to promote their roles, accompany governments to bring happiness to the people, actively participate in responding to global challenges, improve global governance capacity, thereby realising the aspiration to happiness of mankind. I would like to share some of my thoughts as follows:

First, at the national level, the formulation and implementation of policies, guidelines and programmes need to emerge from the awareness of “taking the people as the roots”, taking the people as the centre, considering the people’s happiness as the highest goal, thereby encouraging the State to develop and implement appropriate, effective and specific laws and policies to ensure the above-mentioned development.

Second, countries and political parties need to uphold the spirit of solidarity, community responsibility, enhance dialogue, mutual understanding, international cooperation, respect each other’s legitimate interests, and join hands to respond to traditional and non-traditional security challenges; uphold international laws, especially in the settlement of disagreements and disputes. Only when nations and peoples live together in peace, friendship, mutual respect and mutual assistance, for the common good future of mankind, then people all over the globe can truly and fully enjoy their happiness.

Third, at present, the urgent task for countries, political parties and socio-political organisations is to secure people’s happiness, soon repel the COVID-19 pandemic, accelerate economic recovery and ensure social security. To successfully accomplish this task, the efforts and unity of governments, political parties, organisations and peoples are the key factors, however effective international cooperation will play a significant role for the source of the supply of vaccines to be ensured and accessed equally and timely.

The first Political Platform of the Communist Party of Viet Nam determined that the essential task of the Viet Nam’s revolution was to fulfil the nation’s urgent demands and the people’s earnest aspirations. President Ho Chi Minh, during his lifetime, also regularly reminded us Party members to always grasp thoroughly that “all profits are for the people, all authorities are of the people.”

In a flesh-and-blood bonded relationship, and supported by the people, the Communist Party of Viet Nam has exercised its leadership, together with the people, to overcome myriad hardships and challenges over the past 90 years. Since its establishment, the Communist Party of Viet Nam has led our Vietnamese people to realise the burning aspirations of the colonised people, by gaining independence in 1945, then successfully carrying out the two all-people resistance wars to regain and preserve national independence and reunify the country in 1975. Since then, the people of Viet Nam, under the Party’s leadership, have firmly protected our independence, successfully defended our homeland, carried out post-war recovery and obtained great achievements during the course of renewal (Doi moi) and national development.

Today, Viet Nam has become a developing, middle-income country and one of the world’s fastest-growing economies; with its culture developed and its people’s material and non-material life improved. We were listed among countries with a high UN Human Development Index (HDI) score, especially compared to countries of equivalent development level and have become an active and responsible member of the international community. Over the past year, Viet Nam has made great efforts to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, considering the people’s health and lives uppermost and foremost; proactively and actively preventing and effectively combatting the pandemic while accelerating economic recovery and growth and ensuring social security.

Our practice-based experiences showed that we must take people’s happiness as the target to strive for and rely on people’s invincible strength. The Communist Party of Viet Nam demonstrated its leadership through development guidelines, based on objective rules, wherein developing the economy must be in parallel with implementing social progress and equity, protecting the environment, considering culture the spiritual foundation of the society; building the law-governed State of the people, by the people and for the people; tapping into and promoting innovation, creativity and participation of the entire society; developing relations of peace, friendship and cooperation with countries across the world.

With the nation’s willpower and determination to develop a country toward prosperity and happiness, the Party, State and the people of Viet Nam have been intensifying efforts to accelerate building the Party and political system to be clean, strong and comprehensive with operational effectiveness and efficiency; pushing forward the renewal, industrialisation and modernisation in a comprehensive and concerted manner; continuing to effectively implement a foreign policy of independence, autonomy, multilateralisation, diversification and comprehensive, intensive and extensive international integration; being a friend, a trustworthy partner, an active and responsible member of the international community; expanding relations and pushing forward cooperation with socio-political forces and peoples of all countries, striving for peace, national independence, democracy, cooperation, development and social progress.

On this occasion, on behalf of the Party, State and people of Viet Nam, I would like to sincerely express gratitude for the support, assistance that peoples, political parties and socio-political organisations have reserved for Viet Nam over the years. We have always cherished and been thankful for China’s multifaceted support for Viet Nam during our past struggles for independence and for the present cause of national development.

May the Communist Party of China and World Political Parties Summit be a great success.

Thank you!