Vietnam National Security Strategy Emphasizes Party's Absolute Leadership and State Sovereignty Protection

SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIET NAM Government News Huong Giang Below are major contents of the National Security Strategy: 1. Guiding viewpoints National security protection shall be placed under the absolute, direct, and comprehensive leadership of the Party, and the unified management of the State. It is a vital and regular task of the entire Party, people, and armed forces; heads of party committees and local administrations shall bear primary and ultimate responsibility for handling security issues within their assigned sectors and jurisdictions; the People's Public Security forces shall play the core role. Maintaining national security is a prerequisite for peace, stability, rapid and sustainable development, and the overall improvement of the people's living standards; security must contribute to creating new resources and impetuses for development; development serves as the foundation for sustainable security; security is for development. The capacity for national security protection shall be strengthened in tandem with maintaining and enhancing national defense capabilities. Security in the new era entails not only protecting the Party, the State, the people, the regime, institutions, and national sovereignty, but also extends to protecting the constituent elements of national development capacity, ensuring the stable operation of the entire economic, social, and technological systems. It requires proactively identifying, forecasting, and managing risks early and throughout the development process. Enhancing national autonomy and resilience is a paramount requirement in safeguarding national security. All development strategies must contribute to strengthening national defense and security capabilities; security shall never be traded off for economic growth. Implement comprehensive, holistic, proactive, inclusive, and generative security. Among these, regime security is vital; cultural-ideological security and information-communication security serve as particularly critical foundations for consolidating public trust and maintaining social consensus; economic security, energy security, environmental security, water security, and food security constitute the bedrock; cyber-security, data security, and technology security are at the core; and human security is the ultimate objective. Closely integrate hard power and soft power, steadfast principles and flexible methods, placing national interests above all else, with internal strength acting as the decisive factor and external resources playing an important role. Synchronize national security protection with economic, cultural, social, environmental, and diplomatic development to leverage soft power, thereby creating new posture and strength for the nation. Integrate security considerations from the outset into every policy, sector, and development phase; treat security as a vital criterion in selecting development models, formulating policies, and organizing implementation. Firmly combat, prevent, and strictly handle acts and subjects infringing upon national security in accordance with Party regulations and State laws. Transnational organized crime is explicitly defined as a national security issue. National security protection in the new era closely combines traditional and modern measures; balance "construction" and "prevention", taking "construction" as fundamental and "prevention" as a regular task; shift from "domain-based protection" to "systemic protection"; transition from "individual risk management" to "risk interaction governance"; move from "preventing occurrences at all costs" to "keeping risks below control thresholds, preventing crises from spreading and turning into strategic losses", seizing all conditions to transform "threats" into "opportunities". Firmly guarantee security at the grassroots level, addressing all root causes of insecurity and disorder early to prevent accumulation and escalation into "hotspots". Strive to promote cooperation and reduce disagreements and conflicts to achieve the highest benefits for the cause of national construction and defense. 2. Objectives a) General Objective: Firmly safeguard revolutionary achievements, protect and maximize national interests; protect the Party, State, people, and the socialist regime; protect and lay the foundation for the successful implementation of the cause of renewal, industrialization, and modernization, as well as strategic targets and guidelines of the Party. Protect the national culture, prestige, and international standing; firmly safeguard national security, human security, regime security, institutional security, and security across all domains and spaces; prevent and push back early internal factors causing political instability, as well as threats originating from cyberspace, outer space, low-altitude space, and maritime/oceanic space. Proactively respond to composite threats, non-traditional security challenges, and emerging forms of security infringement; mitigate crisis risks; counter and defeat all subversive schemes and activities of hostile forces. Thereby, contribute to building a disciplined, safe, civilized, harmonious, and thriving society, strengthening public confidence, preserving socio-political stability, enhancing contributions to regional and global peace, and successfully executing the task of building and defending the Socialist Fatherland of Viet Nam. b) Specific Objectives: Protect and firmly consolidate the ideological foundation, the core leadership and ruling role, and the fighting capacity of the Party, alongside the strength of the socialist regime. Ensure the absolute security and safety of leaders and key personnel; strengthen the protection of strategic-level cadres and high-quality human resources, particularly in economic, scientific, and technological sectors. Organize security protection across all development sectors and spaces under the principle of "security extends wherever development reaches". Elevate the protection of human security, internal political security, economic security, worker security, cyber-security, digital infrastructure security, data security, and border security. Strengthen the protection of legitimate interests of Vietnamese organizations and nationals abroad. Conduct security diplomacy and international integration at a new height. Leverage the pioneering role of security cooperation to consolidate and deepen strategic trust between Viet Nam and its partners, harness external resources, identify potential opportunities, and expand cooperation across other domains. Enhance capabilities to defend security from external fronts; build Viet Nam into a partner of peace, stability, cooperation, and development. Build a modern, multi-layered, interconnected, and comprehensive all-people security system and posture across all spaces and domains, grounded on a solid "people's-heart" posture closely linked with the all-people national defense posture. Raise vi