Vietnam determines to advance toward the path of socialism

Dear Comrade,
Dear the Presidium,
Dear Comrades and Friends,

It is a great pleasure for us, the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Delegation, to participate in the annual International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties this time taken place here in Lisbon. Allow me to express my sincere thanks to the invitation and warm reception of Portuguese comrades for us, and extend fraternal greetings to all comrades and friends present here today, as well as the Portuguese communists.

The fact that the International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties held in the beautiful capital of Portugal this year demonstrates its expanded stature. Like the theme of previous meetings held in Athens by the comrades of KKE, the theme this year also continues to closely follow the latest developments in the world and to discuss one of the most practical forms of cooperation and views exchange, which we regard as of great use for communist parties and the revolutionary and progressive forces in the world. We believe that through the International Meeting this time, we will have updated information and better understandings of the current conditions of the communist parties in the world; reach a common voice in evaluating and analyzing the world’s situation and measures for coordination, thus contributing to pushing ahead the common struggle for peace, national independence, cooperation for development and social advances.

We have gone by over the first half decade of the third millennium. The world's situation continues to witness complicated developments with both encouraging factors and concerning ones. This situation requires us to conduct scientific and sound evaluations in order to come up with appropriate and beneficiary solutions for each party, each country and the world's democratic and progressive movement as a whole.

As for us, we have always placed our own situation and the  revolutionary cause of the Party and people of Vietnam within the common international situation and the common cause of the communist and revolutionary movement in the world. To contribute to this Meeting’s discussion here today, we would like to present the CPV’s analyses and evaluations of the international situations over our past Party National  Congresses.

Our 9th Party National  Congress convened in April 2001, the first Congress of the third millennium, put forward a general evaluation on the situation of the past century and a forecast on the situation of the new one. Regarding the past century, our Party hold the view that: " The 20th century has left extremely profound imprints in the history of mankind. It is a century of fastest ever advance of science and technology, and of vigorous economic development intertwined with major crisis of capitalism and the acute rich-poor polarisation among countries and regions. It is a century with two bloody world wars and hundreds of armed conflicts. It is also a century that witnessed a far-reaching revolutionary movement on the world scale, with the victory of the Russian October Revolution; the victory of the socialist revolution in a series of countries of Europe, Asia and Latin-America; and the liberation of almost all colonies; the development of international communist and workers' movement and the movements for peace and democracy, despite the temporally regression of extant socialism in the last decade."
Regarding the future, our Party forecasted: "The 21st century will see more changes. Science and technology will make leaps forward. Knowledge-based economy will play an ever more remarkable role in the process of  development of productive forces. Economic globalisation represents an objective trend involving more and more countries; this trend, dominated by a number of developed countries and transnational capitalist economic corporations, is fraught with contradictions, containing both positive and negative aspects, both cooperation and struggle (…) National struggle and class struggle continue to unfold with acuteness, even more acute in some cases. The world is confronted with many global issues which can not be solved by any single country without multilateral cooperation, such as environmental protection, control of population boom, repulse of perilous epidemics, combat against international crimes, etc. Contemporary capitalism is holding superiority in capital, science, technology and market, yet it can not overcome the inherent contradictions, especially those between the growing socialised character of the productive forces and the capitalist private ownership of the means of production, and between developed capitalist countries and developing countries. Independent nations are intensifying their struggle to choose their own paths of development. World socialism, learning from lessons of success and failure and prompted by the aspirations and awakening of nations, has conditions and capabilities to generate a new development. Following the law of evolution of history, mankind will certainly attain socialism.
For the few decades to come, there is little likeliness for a world war. But, local wars, armed conflicts, ethnic and religious strikes, arms races, intervention, subversion and terrorism will still occur in many places, increasingly complicated in nature. Peace, cooperation and development remain a major trend, reflecting a pressing demand of states and nations. The struggle for peace, national independence, democracy, people's well being and social progress and equity will make new forward strides.

From this overview appraisals, we draw out some general views as follow:

- The world is witnessing intertwinements, transition and transformation on many stages. Historically, it is the transition from the low level of socio-economic complexion to higher level, from capitalism to communism, of which the first phase is socialism. Economically, this is the transition from industrial economy to global knowledge-based one. And in terms of international relations, it is the transition from the collapsed two-polar world order to the establishing multi-polar one.

- Cooperation and struggle as well as the current force rally in the world are focusing on the four main topics, that are: peace, a new world order, sustainable development and national independence with national sovereignty, and social democracy, equity and progression.

- Great powers still dominate the world's situation and their relationship continues to stay within the frame of mutual cooperation and struggle, of containing and deterrence.

- In the Southeast Asia area in particular and Asia-Pacific regions in general, peace, cooperation and development are still the main trend, but potentially destabilising factors remain.

Based on these analyses, appraisals and judges, the 10th National Congress of the CPV convened in April, 2006 reaffirmed to “consistently follow the foreign affairs policies of independence, sovereignty, peace, cooperation and development; to carry out the foreign policy of openness, multi-lateralisation and diversification of international relations. To proactively integrate into the international economy and, at the same time, expanding international cooperation in the other domains. To make Vietnam a reliable friend and trusted partner of countries in the international community and actively participates in the process of international and regional cooperation." The Congress defines the task of foreign relations work are to firmly maintain the peaceful environment, create favourable conditions for the renewal process, boost socio-economic development, national industrialisation and modernization, national construction and defence and at the same time, actively contribute to the common struggle of the world’s people for peace, national independence, democracy and social progress.
 
In its foreign policy, Vietnam sets store and develop its relations of friendship and cooperation with neighbouring countries, ASEAN countries; pushes for in-depth, stable and sustainable relations with majour powers; and at the same time develops relations with all countries, territories, international organizations, and economic and politic centers in the world. We also continue to consolidate and intensify our relations with communist and workers’ parties, left parties, national liberation and independence movements, and revolutionary and progressive movements in the world; expand relations with ruling parties and broaden international people-to-people relations.

We believe that by promoting the strength of the great national unity basing on self reliance and taking advantage of external helps through international cooperation, including the supports and solidarity from  Communist Parties, democratic and progressive forces in the world, the Communist Party of Vietnam will certainly lead our People successfully build up the socialist society in Vietnam. The socialist society that our people are building is one of “a prosperous people, a powerful country and an equitable, democratic and civilised society”; a society owned by the people, a society with a highly developed economy relying on modern production forces and a production relationship matching the level of development of the production forces; a society with an advanced culture deeply imbued with its own national identities, a society with people being liberalized from oppression and injustice and enjoying an adequate life, freedom, happiness and comprehensive development; a society with all ethnic groups in Vietnamese community being equal and united and assisting each other to progress; a society with a law-governed socialist State of the people, by the people and for the people under the leadership of the CPV, having friendly and cooperative ties with all people throughout the world."

On this occasion, let me extend my sincere and deep thanks to all comrades, friends and people from the five continents and the four oceans  for their enthusiastic support, solidarity and assistance for our Party and People over the past decades. The up-to-date successes and victories of Vietnam’s Revolution have never been separated from such support, solidarity and assistance.

Also I wish all comrades present here today good health and success in your lives and careers.

Wish our meeting this time big success.
Thank you, comrades and friends.