National Assembly adopts Amendments to Law on Vietnamese Representative Missions Abroad
WVR - With 489 out of 490 deputies voting in favor, the National Assembly adopted the Law amending and supplementing certain provisions of the Law on Vietnamese Representative Missions Abroad.
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| Politburo Member, Minister of Foreign Affairs Le Hoai Trung presents the summary report on the draft law. (Source: National Assembly) |
On the afternoon of April 23, continuing the agenda of the First Session of the 16th National Assembly, the National Assembly passed the Law amending and supplementing certain provisions of the Law on Vietnamese Representative Missions Abroad.
Prior to the voting, deputies listened to Politburo Member, Minister of Foreign Affairs Le Hoai Trung, on behalf of the Government, present the summary report on the draft law.
The Foreign Minister stated that the Government has considered the verification opinions and the opinions of the National Assembly delegation and deputies regarding the necessity of enacting the Law, its alignment with the Party's policies, its constitutionality, legality, and consistency with the legal system, and its compatibility with relevant international treaties to which Vietnam is a party. Issues of ensuring national defense, security, financial resources, human resources, scope of regulation, and related issues concerning the dossier components and procedures for drafting the Law were also addressed.
Regarding the functions and tasks of the representative missions, Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung noted that the Government has incorporated most of the opinions related to supplementing and expanding the functions and tasks of the Representative Missions to align with the Party's documents.
Accordingly, a number of areas of work for the Representative Missions have been added, such as agriculture, advocacy for countries and international organizations to register and recognize cultural heritage, and issues related to the Vietnamese language. The issue of enterprises has been added to the subjects eligible for consular protection, along with regulations on the time frame for organizations to notify the CQĐD in emergencies or as directed by competent authorities.
Simultaneously, the Government has clearly reported on certain areas proposed by deputies, which have also been included in the draft law, such as emerging technologies and tourism issues.
The Government has also reviewed practical reports on several contents raised by deputies concerning the role of diplomacy in economics, culture, science, technology, and innovation of the Representative Missions the implementation of tasks to promote the preservation and dissemination of the Vietnamese language, coordination mechanisms between representative missions and localities, coordination with Vietnamese organizations, and functions related to judicial assistance, as well as reports explaining the unnecessary issuance of guiding documents for urgent citizen protection cases or generalizing certain areas.
Regarding the restructuring of the organization and personnel of the Representative Missions, the Government has supplemented principles for transferring staff between Representative Missions based on task requirements and work locations; added criteria for ambassadors to have the capacity to implement digital transformation... revised terms such as special diplomatic positions; and added regulations extending the ambassador's term to a maximum of 36 months.
Additionally, the standards and procedures for recognizing experts will be detailed in the Decree guiding Resolution No. 250/2025 dated December 10, 2025, of the National Assembly and are currently being consulted for Government approval.
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| The National Assembly officially passed the Law amending and supplementing certain provisions of the Law on Vietnamese Representative Missions Abroad. (Source: National Assembly) |
Evaluating the impact of expanding experts, the review and clear reporting on the unnecessary requirement for experts to simultaneously be officials, civil servants, or public employees, as Article 17, Clause 1, Point a of the current Law stipulates that Representative Mission members must be officials, civil servants, or public employees. The report clearly addresses issues of training and fostering the cadre before assignment; issues related to reserve staffing...
Regarding the operation, management of the Representative Missions, and policies for Missions members and their accompanying relatives, the report indicates that the Government has reviewed and supplemented regulations on issues such as: tuition support for accompanying children up to the end of high school; clarifying that the Government will specify concurrent allowances, insurance policies, cost-of-living adjustment mechanisms, and measures to prevent policy abuse in the Decree amending and supplementing Decree 08/2019 of the Government on the regimes for Vietnamese Representative Missions members abroad. It also clearly reports on issues of medium and long-term public investment, diversifying investment forms, foreign currency usage, and flexible procedures and special mechanisms for construction investment projects and financial supervision issues.
Regarding the estimation, management, and use of state budget settlements and accounting work conducted in US dollars and local currency converted to US dollars and Vietnamese dong, the drafting agency has coordinated with the Ministry of Finance and related agencies to ensure compliance with the State Budget Law. Simultaneously, the proposal and reports also clearly state that it is unnecessary to maintain the Citizen Protection Fund while still ensuring funding for citizen activities.
The passage of the Law amending and supplementing certain provisions of the Law on Vietnamese Representative Missions Abroad aims to address some limitations and inadequacies of the 2009 Representative Missions Law (amended and supplemented in 2017); amend and supplement certain provisions to ensure the effective operation of the Representative Missions in meeting new requirements of the country's socio-economic development, unify the management of foreign affairs activities, enhance professionalism in the activities of representative missions, meet the Party and State's policy of promoting decentralization and delegation, ensure the consistency and unity of the legal system, and contribute to building a modern diplomacy, reflecting the importance and regularity of foreign affairs work.
The Law amending and supplementing certain provisions of the Law on Vietnamese Representative Missions Abroad takes effect from July 1, 2026.
