Deputy Minister Ngo Le Van: Hai Phong proactively, flexibly, and creatively implements local foreign affairs
WVR - On the morning of January 6, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Ngo Le Van, Chairman of the Vietnam National Commission for UNESCO, attended the conference summarizing the foreign affairs work of 2025 and implementing key tasks for 2026 in Hai Phong City.
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| Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Ngo Le Van and leaders of the Hải Phòng Department of Foreign Affairs present flowers to congratulate former department leaders. (Photo: Chu Van) |
The conference was attended by Hoang Minh Cuong, Member of the City Party Committee, Vice Chairman of the Hai Phong People's Committee; Le Thi Hong Van, Director of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Cultural Diplomacy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Secretary General of the Vietnam National Commission for UNESCO; Tran Thi Quynh Trang, Director of the Hải Phòng Department of Foreign Affairs, along with leaders of departments, agencies, units, enterprises, associations, overseas Vietnamese, and representatives of foreign diplomatic missions and international organizations in Vietnam.
In his directive speech at the conference, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Ngo Le Van stated that in 2025, the global situation continues to evolve rapidly and complexly, intertwining new era opportunities with political, economic, and international security upheavals and instabilities.
Domestically, the organizational and administrative restructuring revolution, the implementation of the two-tier local government model, along with strategic resolutions across 11 key areas and Resolution No. 250/2025/QH15, have established an important legal foundation. This enables localities to be more proactive in international integration, expand development space, and enhance national competitiveness.
Foreign affairs continue to affirm their role as a highlight and outstanding achievement, contributing to maintaining a peaceful and stable environment, promoting sustainable socio-economic development, and enhancing Vietnam's position and prestige on the international stage.
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| Deputy Minister Ngo Le Van delivering a directive speech at the conference. (Photo: Chu Van) |
In this context, the Deputy Minister highly appreciated and warmly congratulated the comprehensive and outstanding achievements that Hải Phòng has accomplished. He noted that Hai Phong has been proactive, flexible, and creative in implementing local foreign affairs.
The city tightly integrates foreign affairs activities with socio-economic development tasks. The Deputy Minister affirmed that Hai Phong's foreign affairs work has "followed the right direction and met the requirements" of diplomacy serving development, gradually becoming an important and practical driving force for the city's breakthrough growth.
Hai Phong's practical contributions are not only significant for the locality but also play an important role in the overall success of national foreign affairs, while enhancing Vietnam's position and image on the international stage.
In the momentum of 2025, stepping into 2026 with a determination to break through, affirming the pioneering role and essential, regular tasks of foreign affairs in the new era, Deputy Minister Ngo Le Van proposed that the city focus on six strategic tasks:
First, unify the perception of the "pioneering" role and "essential, regular" tasks of foreign affairs, adhering to the spirit of the 14th Congress with the requirement of "strategic autonomy, resilience, confidence, advancing strongly in the nation's era of rising". He emphasized that this is a very new development in thinking and strategy; suggesting the need for mechanisms, resources, advice, and effective implementation.
Second, develop a Foreign Affairs and International Integration Strategy for 2026-2030 with specific action programs, to suit the new regional and global context, while maximizing the advantages of a "super growth pole" with a central position linking the Hanoi Capital Region - Northern Key Economic Region, directly connecting the Gulf of Tonkin and international maritime routes.
The strategy review should be linked with local brand positioning, prioritizing by sector and partner, avoiding dispersion.
Third, place diplomacy serving development as a central axis, continue to elevate economic diplomacy, shifting from attracting investment to proactively selecting partners and projects, prioritizing high technology, green transition, digital transformation, marine economy, and smart logistics.
Fourth, continue to promote cultural diplomacy and heritage diplomacy, leveraging soft power through existing inter-provincial heritage systems: Yen Tu - Vinh Nghiem - Con Son, Kiep Bac relic and scenic complex, Ha Long Bay - Cat Ba Archipelago World Natural Heritage; support the development of heritage dossiers, registering Trang Trinh Nguyen Binh Khiem, Great Physician Zen Master Tue Tinh, intangible heritage dossiers like water puppetry... thereby increasing international presence, promoting exchanges, tourism, and people-to-people cooperation.
Fifth, implement foreign affairs work comprehensively and closely on three pillars: Party diplomacy, State diplomacy, and People-to-People diplomacy, ensuring unity and seamlessness from the Central to local levels. The Department of Foreign Affairs is urged to enhance its functions, advising the City Party Committee in implementation, and developing specific plans.
Finally, the Deputy Minister suggested strengthening close, effective, and regular coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Hai Phong, especially establishing a coordination channel between Hai Phong and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs through 98 Vietnamese representative agencies abroad, building a "practical, effective foreign affairs network" to directly serve Hai Phong's development priorities.
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| Deputy Minister Ngo Le Van with conference delegates. (Photo: Chu Van) |
On behalf of Hai Phong's leadership, Hoang Minh Cuong, Member of the City Party Committee, Vice Chairman of the City People's Committee, expressed deep gratitude to the Minister, Ministry of Foreign Affairs leaders, and the Ministry's agencies and units for their attention, support, and companionship in Hải Phòng's foreign affairs work over the past time.
Emphasizing that economy and culture are the core foundations for building strategic cooperative relationships, the Vice Chairman hopes that in the future, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will continue to support and guide Hải Phòng in achieving the key objectives for 2026.
In this regard, the city requests the Ministry's attention to supporting the implementation of specific mechanisms, enhancing global connectivity, and improving cultural diplomacy effectiveness, contributing to realizing the local development orientations.
Concluding the conference, Tran Thi Quynh Trang, Director of the Hải Phòng Department of Foreign Affairs, pledged to absorb the directives of Deputy Minister Ngo Le Van, committing to effectively implement foreign affairs work in 2026 across six focal points: (i) Advising on concretizing the Party's guidelines, State laws on foreign affairs and international integration, enhancing international situation research and forecasting, and developing the "Global Connectivity City" project; (ii) Implementing foreign affairs work comprehensively on three pillars: Party diplomacy, State diplomacy, and People-to-People diplomacy, focusing on economic diplomacy with the motto "Putting people and businesses at the center", actively attracting ODA, FDI, NGOs, and remittances.
(iii) Maintaining and expanding international cooperative relations, signing cooperation agreements, and opening new international flight routes from Hải Phòng; (iv) Enhancing the quality of external information, promoting the country's and city's image on digital platforms, while linking cultural diplomacy with tourism promotion, UNESCO heritage promotion, and developing dossiers for the recognition of Trạng Trình Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm and Physician Tuệ Tĩnh as World Cultural Figures; (v) Strengthening people-to-people friendship activities, implementing foreign non-governmental aid, and enhancing overseas Vietnamese work; and (vi) Consolidating organization and improving the quality of foreign affairs human resources associated with digital transformation.
The Director of the Department expressed the desire to continue receiving attention, direction, support, and guidance from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; effective coordination from agencies, departments, units, localities, and international partners so that foreign affairs truly become an essential, regular field, increasingly contributing significantly to the city's socio-economic development.
On this occasion, 47 collectives and individuals at home and abroad were awarded Certificates of Merit by the Director of the Department of Foreign Affairs for outstanding achievements in foreign affairs work in 2025. Also within the framework of the conference, the Department of Foreign Affairs leadership presented flowers to honor former department leaders who have transitioned to new positions during the year.
