Cultural Values ​​- The Unparalleled Strength of Vietnam

Ambassador Pham Sanh Chau is passionate about cultural diplomacy. He is known as the Heritage Ambassador, always concerned about introducing Vietnamese culture to the world, contributing to building a system of cultural values ​​- soft power to help Vietnam overcome all difficulties.

Foreign diplomats on an occasion participating in activities to learn about Vietnam's traditional culture.

As a diplomat who has been involved in cultural diplomacy for many years, how does the Ambassador feel about his "mission"?

My luck when I started implementing the direction of the superior leaders, implementing the cultural diplomacy policy was when the country had entered a period of stability, breaking the siege and embargo from the outside, including political , economic and diplomatic embargoes. In the period of 2005 - 2006, about 20 years after the renovation, the country had some improvement. Therefore, my work was much more favorable.

I understand that our predecessors have worked very hard to propagate to our friends about our righteous cause in protecting the Fatherland, unifying the country, and then in the issue of peace and stability in the region...

When I was doing cultural diplomacy, the context was very favorable. At that time, we had a lot of things to “show off” and cultural diplomacy was like our family life. When meeting acquaintances, people often asked: How are you? How are your children? Surely you would also want to show off something about your family. My work in implementing cultural diplomacy and shaping Vietnam’s soft power also determined what to “show off” and what needed to be “showed off”.

According to the Ambassador, to do well in cultural diplomacy, what is the most important thing?

First of all, I think we need to understand clearly what cultural diplomacy is. In my personal opinion - a practitioner of cultural diplomacy - cultural diplomacy must achieve two factors: It must have cultural quality and diplomatic quality. If we only do culture, we will be cultural activists; if we only do diplomacy, we will be diplomatic activists - protecting the interests of the country according to the usual definition.

So what about cultural diplomats? They are diplomats who must promote the implementation of cultural policies and use culture as a tool to demonstrate Vietnam’s soft power. And the important thing is to convey cultural messages and make a difference.

From that approach, what should we focus on "showing off" when doing cultural diplomacy in Vietnam, Ambassador ?

According to UNESCO, a country can be stronger militarily, larger in population than me, richer economically. But when it comes to culture, we must respect differences and the cultures of all countries are equal - they all have the same power.

The cultural diplomacy we are currently implementing has great potential. First of all, we have a glorious and heroic history. That glorious and heroic history is the luggage, the invaluable asset for us to share.

In the past, the world knew the name of Vietnam because of its victory over the world's leading empires and colonialists - because of heroic Vietnam. But what I want to say here is that Vietnamese culture is not a culture of victory. We should not convey: Vietnam - War country or convey: Vietnam - a victory country. No!

We must convey that Vietnam is a nation that loves and desires peace. Our message is a message of peace, we have to take up arms to defend our Fatherland only when we have no other choice and when we win, we know that there are pains and losses on both sides. And we are ready to close the past to look forward to the future.

Vietnam is a country that always loves and desires peace. (Photo: PL)

When we are willing to close the past and move towards the future, we have the ability to forgive. And the ability to forgive is a very great ability - only countries with a very high level of culture, a certain sophistication and great endurance can practice a culture of forgiveness.

At the same time, we must “show off” what we think – or more deeply, we must show the world our beliefs. We believe in good things, and we follow the thoughts, ideas, and philosophies of Buddhism.

Vietnam's diplomatic strategy was likened by the late General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong to Bamboo Diplomacy with Vietnamese identity. We have had a diplomatic philosophy for a long time. We never want to choose sides, never choose confrontation, choose extremism, and we never choose cowardice, choose surrender. We choose justice - a great path.

I think all of those qualities need to be shared. No country in the world has a special spiritual world like Vietnam. Every country has a religion - every religion has value and deserves respect. But in Vietnam, there is the religion of ancestors - originating from the custom of worshiping the Hung Kings, the Holy Mother... all of those things create a belief in the good things of the Vietnamese people.

The cultural value system that creates Vietnam's strength is all that I have just listed. We cannot say that Vietnamese culture is just a song, a play, or a film... That is just a form of expression. The most important thing we must highlight to introduce and create a pillar of Vietnam's cultural diplomacy is Vietnam's value system. That value system creates Vietnam's soft power and thanks to this soft power, Vietnam has defeated all invading forces from the past to the present.

Ambassador Pham Sanh Chau believes that personal factors and personal identity are essential in diplomacy. (Photo: Bao Chi)

During your diplomatic career, it is known that the Ambassador has many personal relationships of international significance - including many politicians, diplomats, scholars , economists ... Could the Ambassador share his thoughts on the importance of building personal relationships in the overall diplomatic strategy?

I think one of the points that I would like to contribute to Vietnam's foreign policy is the element of personalization. Currently, I am working in a leading corporation in Vietnam. In the development strategy of this corporation, there are 3 points that must be emphasized - systematization, personalization and simplification. In those factors, personalization plays a very important role. Vietnam's diplomacy - I think is very excellent and the achievements of the past 80 years have been recognized.

But to enter a new phase - a challenging phase with a volatile world, the role of diplomacy must be pushed to a new level.

We have 3 things to achieve.

First , we must create greater motivation for diplomats. Second , every diplomat must motivate himself to become a professional diplomat - professional behavior, professional speech, professional dress, professional speech, professional time, professional style, professional writing... Everything must be professional and standardized in a systematic way.

Third , there must be a personal element, a personal identity. People often say that I have a personal brand. I think that is probably true, because in many cases I have successfully campaigned with my personal brand.

There are times when policy is not clear, but all it takes is a phone call or a meal or a very sincere story, sharing and expressing that I am having such a hard time right now, I know your government is like that, but please support me… I think the personal element plays a very important role in such special relationships.

Thank you very much Ambassador!

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/he-gia-tri-van-hoa-suc-manh-vo-song-cua-viet-nam-325138.html