Former Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien: Proud of Vietnam's position in the international arena

On this occasion, Vietnam News Agency reporters had a conversation with former Party Central Committee member and former Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien - who directly participated in many important diplomatic events of the country, to look back at the great achievements that the country has achieved over the past 8 decades, especially 40 years of renovation, including the important contributions of the Vietnamese Diplomatic Sector.

Tự hào vị thế Việt Nam trên trường quốc tế

Former Party Central Committee member and former Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien gives an interview to a VNA reporter. (Photo: Viet Duc/VNA)

Remove bottlenecks

“I have lived through many stages of the revolution, from the resistance war against French colonialism, to the resistance war against the US, to save the country, and then to the current period of renovation. Witnessing the development of the country, I feel extremely excited, especially in the current period. If we consider diplomacy, I feel very happy and secure because Vietnam's position in the international arena is now so good, so wonderful. In our time, due to conditions not allowing it, this was just a dream" - former Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien, who is 90 years old this year and has 52 consecutive years of service in the diplomatic sector, shared.

According to Mr. Nguyen Dy Nien, the journey of the past 8 decades, especially the 40 years of national renovation, is a journey of changing the Party's leadership and management thinking, promptly removing bottlenecks for the country to develop, in which the 6th National Congress of the Party in 1986 is considered a historical milestone that set out the path of national renovation, including the Diplomatic sector.

“The Party’s innovation policy has helped the diplomatic sector untie many bottlenecks that we have not been able to do before, such as relations with Western countries and countries in other regions, thereby contributing to promoting other areas from politics to economics, security, defense, and culture,” Mr. Nguyen Dy Nien emphasized.

Pointing out the outstanding marks of the Diplomatic sector in 40 years of national renovation, former Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien said that Vietnamese Diplomacy has made extremely positive and important contributions to the country's development. "The diplomatic sector has made efforts to help break the embargo. Vietnamese diplomacy has cooperated with friends and progressive forces in the world to handle and resolve issues of relations with neighboring countries. We normalized relations with China (in 1991), with the United States (in 1995), joined ASEAN (1995), joined ASEM (Asia-Europe Meeting) in 1996, APEC (November 1998), and in terms of economic diplomacy, we have signed many bilateral and multilateral economic agreements with other countries," said Mr. Nguyen Dy Nien.

A view of the United Nations General Assembly meeting adopting the resolution on the International Day for Epidemic Preparedness proposed by Vietnam. (Photo: Huu Thanh/VNA correspondent in New York, USA)

Cultural diplomacy and Vietnam's soft power

As Minister of Foreign Affairs for 7 years (from February 2000 to June 2006), one of the marks of the Foreign Affairs sector that many people mention when talking about former Minister Nguyen Dy Nien is cultural diplomacy, especially activities honoring President Ho Chi Minh abroad and spreading Ho Chi Minh's diplomatic ideology.

Sharing with reporters, former Minister Nguyen Dy Nien expressed his passion and excitement when mentioning cultural diplomacy activities.

Before becoming Minister, he was Chairman of the Vietnam National Commission for UNESCO for 13 years, where he directly participated and witnessed the historic event 35 years ago, in 1987, UNESCO issued a Resolution honoring "Ho Chi Minh as Hero of National Liberation, Outstanding Cultural Figure of Vietnam".

“In 1987, I attended the 24th UNESCO General Assembly in Paris (France) and I, along with Ms. Phan Thi Phuc, Secretary General of the UNESCO National Commission, along with the Deputy Minister of Culture, poet Huy Can, and a number of other Ambassadors, participated in the campaign for UNESCO to vote to honor President Ho Chi Minh. And it must be remembered that in 1987, Vietnam had only established diplomatic relations with over 50 countries. Most of the countries that did not have diplomatic relations with Vietnam were fiercely opposing Vietnam. Yet the UNESCO General Assembly voted and achieved an almost absolute number of votes in favor of honoring Uncle Ho. Here, we saw that this was not due to our efforts to lobby, but rather because of Uncle Ho's great prestige in the international arena,” Mr. Nguyen Dy Nien recalled and said that the world's honoring of President Ho Chi Minh was a testament to the soft power, reputation and prestige of the leader and the country of Vietnam, a nation hero

With a passion for cultural diplomacy, including admiration for Ho Chi Minh's diplomatic ideology, when he was Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Nguyen Dy Nien made an important contribution to summarizing President Ho Chi Minh's ideology on diplomacy and building it into a fairly complete system of "Ho Chi Minh's diplomatic ideology"; at the same time, effectively applying "Ho Chi Minh's diplomatic ideology" to foreign affairs activities, contributing to raising the country's international position, while promoting and elevating Vietnam's cultural diplomacy.

Believe in the new era of development of the country

Expressing his agreement with the major decisions of the Party and State on national development in the new era, former Minister Nguyen Dy Nien said that the revolution of streamlining the administrative apparatus and organizing a two-level local government model initiated by our Party headed by General Secretary To Lam, which is being resolutely implemented, is of great significance, helping to transform the state from a developing country to a developed country by 2045.

To successfully carry out this revolution, Mr. Nguyen Dy Nien believes that the first thing is to change the ideology and thinking, as the Party did 40 years ago: “This is still the most important issue. We must look at the world and look at ourselves,” Mr. Nguyen Dy Nien emphasized.

Agreeing with the viewpoint that the Party and State leaders have repeatedly emphasized that "if you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together", former Minister Nguyen Dy Nien said that in the context of deep integration, Vietnam needs to go with humanity, with the world, with other countries. In addition, the former Foreign Minister also noted the issue of preserving national identity and said that no matter how deep the integration is, it must "preserve its own identity".

In the new era of development, former Minister Nguyen Dy Nien said that there is a need for solutions to enhance Vietnamese intelligence and gather talents. "The intelligence of Vietnamese people must be multiplied even higher. The elite must be formed and gathered, respected, and given opportunities to work and contribute to the country," Mr. Nguyen Dy Nien shared and highly appreciated the resolutions and conclusions that the Party has issued in recent times, including 4 Resolutions considered as the "Four Pillars" that have had a great impact on the country's socio-economic development.

From the initial difficulties of the Doi Moi process to the current position, along with expectations and challenges for the future, former Minister Nguyen Dy Nien expressed his deep belief in the path the country is taking and the aspiration for a Vietnam "standing shoulder to shoulder with the world powers" as Uncle Ho wished.

According to Tin Tuc Newspaper

https://baotintuc.vn/thoi-su/tu-hao-vi-the-viet-nam-tren-truong-quoc-te-20250817205450892.htm

Source: https://thoidai.com.vn/nguyen-bo-truong-ngoai-giao-nguyen-dy-nien-tu-hao-vi-the-viet-nam-tren-truong-quoc-te-215619.html