Achievement intoxication
Last year, Vietnam’s state-controlled media had the opportunity to praise all the achievements of Vietnam’s diplomacy.
The Vietnamese government and the diplomatic sector are still excited to “show off their merits” when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out and complicated developments in the world and in the country, the Foreign Affairs branch pioneered together with ministries and branches to promote ” medical diplomacy,” “vaccine diplomacy,” enlisted the timely and effective support of the international community on vaccines, medical equipment, and therapeutic drugs, joining hands with the whole country to prevent and control the epidemic. sick.
Unexpected slap
However, reveling in the victory, the police arrest of Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong Lan – Director of the Consular Department was like a “slap” in the face of Vietnam’s diplomacy. In fact, dirty plots and corrupt games are still there, and Ms. Lan’s arrest is just the tip of the iceberg for corruption in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Corruption in the Vietnamese public apparatus, which is beautifully called “group interest,” has existed for a long time and is very deep in the entire political system of Vietnam, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not an exception.
It has been discussed for a long time that every position in diplomatic missions has its “price.” From the positions of Deputy Director, Director to the positions of Director, Deputy Minister, there are specific “prices.” Representative agencies in foreign countries, too, have to “run” to go to “good” and “rich countries.” From there, “out of the house, to the land“, otherwise “starvation and empty mouth.”
During the recent COVID-19 Pandemic, the “power” of the diplomatic mission was very great in deciding the list of Vietnamese citizens who are abroad and included in the list of repatriation on humanitarian flights. And the benefits arising from this power led to the fact that the Director of the Consular Department and three subordinates were arrested.
Interested people can ask a question: If so many corrupted diplomats, it would not be difficult for Chinese intelligence to infiltrate the Vietnamese diplomatic mission. Because Chinese intelligence is willing to spend a lot of money to buy information as well as create ways to influence Vietnam’s foreign policy. There will be advocates of the diplomatic sector, saying that this is just a “make a living” activity of diplomats in general because the diplomatic industry is very special, but the income is very meager, receiving salaries like all other Vietnamese cadres and civil servants, but living in foreign missions they must pay in foreign currency, but these diplomats know where to “get money” to avoid being bought by foreign intelligence. However, called intelligence, methods of bribery and infiltration are extremely diverse and rich, so it is not easy for “money-hungry” employees to escape.
The gloomy fate of Mr. Nguyen Co Thach
Ms. Lan’s corruption story also shows that the role of diplomacy has not been properly placed in the Vietnamese political system. Of the three ministries involved in foreign policymaking, the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ranks last. Currently, the Vietnamese Foreign Minister has not been allowed to enter the Politburo, while the Minister of Defense and the Minister of Public Security have always been members of the Politburo. The salaries of the police and military are the highest in the Vietnamese civil service, while the diplomatic service is not enough to live on, so diplomats have to seek more earnings.
Not to mention that in relations with Beijing, diplomacy is always excluded from important decisions affecting the country’s destiny.
Reporter Huynh Phan (real name Hoang Ngoc) has many documents about a talented diplomatic figure, is the late Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach. In the early 1990s, because China “did not like” Mr. Thach, the Chengdu Conference, Mr. Thach was not able to attend and was not provided with information. Prof. Dr. Vu Duong Huan – who used to hold the position of Director of the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam and former Head of the Department of Diplomatic History Studies, said: “About 2-3 months before the 7th National Congress (June 1991) of the party, there were many events. There was news that China was trying to bring down Mr. Thach because he was anti-China. But the fact is that he presided over Resolution XIII, one of the important contents of which is to solve the Cambodia problem and normalize relations with China. To talk about this period of history, we could also use his quote “practice will answer.”
However, there are hidden corners behind the official pages. That’s why, later on, reporter Huynh Phan posted on his Facebook story about an article written about Nguyen Co Thach, but was prevented from publishing it. Huynh Phan quoted Prof. Dr. Vu Duong Huan as saying: “Minister Nguyen Co Thach’s view is that he wants to normalize relations with China, but Vietnam must protect its national interests…” Former Minister Nguyen Dy Nien, then Head of the Working Group Negotiating Teams to prepare for the Chengdu meeting (September 3-4, 1990), said that Vietnam’s position was first to discuss the normalization of relations with China, then discussed Cambodia. But China objected, demanding to do the opposite.”
“The two sides argued for more than a day, and finally I had to call back to the country to ask for advice. Senior leaders have made concessions to China’s position,” former Minister Nguyen Dy Nien said. When approaching the Chengdu Conference, Deng Xiaoping voiced to Vietnam’s top leaders, through the Lao Communist Party General Secretary Kaysone Phomvihane’s visit to China, that Minister Nguyen Co Thach “had an intention to cause trouble.” Because he too wanted to normalize relations with China, General Secretary Nguyen Van Linh agreed not to let Minister Nguyen Co Thach attend the delegation, but only to Deputy Minister Dinh Nho Liem to attend.
“The Chinese side knows very well that Minister Nguyen Co Thach is a very good negotiator from the Geneva Conference on Laos (1961-1962), to the Paris Conference (1972-1973), so if he attends Chengdu, China is difficult to force Vietnam to accept the Red Solution. It is they who have caused division within our senior officials,” said former Minister Nguyen Dy Nien.
A very talented Vietnamese diplomat like Mr. Nguyen Co Thach, but before the “intervention” of the “heavenly court”, the Communist Party of Vietnam was ready to “sacrifice” this talented diplomat. Saying that to understand the role of diplomacy in Vietnam.
The story of Mr. Trong going to Beijing
In 2011, when Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong was just elected General Secretary, there was a trip to China. To create a diplomatic imprint for the new General Secretary, Beijing had someone prepare an Agreement on principles for settling disputes at sea between Vietnam and China. It is worth mentioning that this document was completely drafted by China in advance, only the Vietnamese side can sign it. Even some international law experts from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam wanted to come in to participate in negotiating terms to protect Vietnam’s interests but were kicked out, on the grounds that this was decided by the two Communist parties. There is no room for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to step in. Therefore, later on, this Agreement between the Chinese version and the Vietnamese version has some differences. The Chinese version of Article 4 affirms that the two countries will seek a solution by “putting aside disputes for joint exploitation” while the Vietnamese version says “cooperation for mutual development.” This shows that the role of diplomacy is inferior to the Party’s diplomatic missions, which is often the reason why the documents signed by the Communist Party of Vietnam with the Communist Party of China have put Vietnam at a disadvantage in many areas.
Conclude
With such “bottlenecks” in terms of remuneration as well as Vietnam’s role in foreign policymaking, no matter how many talented people there are in Vietnam’s diplomacy, their hands are tied. Therefore, in the coming time, Vietnamese people will discover more “dark achievements” of Vietnamese diplomacy when public agencies themselves uncover more “dirty corruption” cases. So is the attitude against Beijing’s powerful power real or are the parties playing tricks?
Thoibao.de (Translated)
