Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam - 65 years of striving with the nation

On the morning of December 2, the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam solemnly held a ceremony to celebrate the 65th anniversary of its founding (1959-2024) and to celebrate Vietnamese Teachers' Day (November 20)

Attending the ceremony were Comrade Bui Thanh Son, member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Comrade Le Hai Binh, alternate member of the Party Central Committee, Editor-in-Chief of the Communist Review; Comrade Pham Lan Dung, Permanent Vice President of the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam Council, Former Acting President of the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam; Comrade Nguyen Hung Son, Acting President of the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam; Comrade Nguyen Thi Thin, Vice President of the Diplomatic Academy; members of the Academy Council and generations of leaders, officials, lecturers, staff, alumni and students of the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam.

The 65th anniversary of the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam is an opportunity for generations of teachers and students to reminisce, look back on the development of the Academy through the periods, and honor the contributions of generations of leaders, officials, and employees to training in particular, and to the development and position of the Academy in general over the past 65 years.

The ceremony is also held to celebrate Vietnamese Teachers' Day (November 20), a fine tradition of the Vietnamese people "Respect teachers and esteem education - Remember the source of water when drinking". This is also a special occasion for generations of students to express their deep gratitude and appreciation for the efforts and contributions of the Academy's faculty, staff, and employees to the cause of developing education and training of the country in general and of the Diplomatic sector in particular. At the same time, it is also an opportunity for all lecturers, staff, employees and students of the Academy to share and understand each other to work together to build and develop the Academy, meeting the increasingly high demands of the country's industrialization and modernization.

In the joyful and exciting atmosphere of the 65th anniversary of its founding and Vietnam Teachers' Day, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son and leaders of the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam, Dr. Pham Lan Dung and Dr. Nguyen Hung Son cut the ribbon to inaugurate the Academy's traditional room. This is not only a place to preserve the important historical milestones of the Academy in its development journey, but also an expression of the sincere gratitude of today's generation for the achievements that the previous generations have worked hard to build. That is also the motivation, the solid spiritual anchor, the inspiration for generations of officials, lecturers, staff and students of the Academy to continue to build on these achievements, uphold the glorious tradition of the Academy, make more substantive and effective contributions to the development of the Academy in particular and the development of the Diplomatic sector, of the country in general.

At the ceremony, the leaders of the Diplomatic Academy through the periods had a discussion, looking back on the historical journey of the Academy, sharing memories, changes of the Academy through the periods, discussing and pointing out the challenges that the Academy must face in the coming period so that it can  employ a strategy for developing the Academy. At the same time, the leaders expressed their expectations, trust in future generations to develop and maintain the identity of the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam. Entering a new era - the era of national development, the diplomatic sector has important tasks, the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam strives to become the core of strategic research on international relations, a finest educational establishment, fostering foreign affairs knowledge and international integration for the Diplomatic sector and the country. The former leaders hope that the leaders and staff of the Academy will always preserve the tradition of solidarity, promote the spirit of daring to think and dare to do, realizing the mission and vision of the Academy.

Also attending the ceremony were outstanding alumni who have become prestigious leaders, managers, and experts in the field of foreign affairs at all levels, in all sectors, and in all fields; contributing their intelligence and efforts to the overall development of the country. The alumni present at the ceremony were very emotional and moved when meeting their teachers after many years of leaving the beloved Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam, an environment where everyone was close and showed each other great affection and compassion, together shaping the unique identity of the Academy. Comrade Bui Thanh Son, member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Comrade Le Hai Binh, alternate member of the Party Central Committee, Editor-in-Chief of the Communist Review were two of the outstanding alumni. With all the pride of being a student of the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam, bringing the knowledge learned at the Academy to contribute to the country, the alumni are always ready to accompany the Diplomatic Academy and believe that with what the Academy has accomplished in the past 65 years in the career of fostering, training and research, the Academy can confidently step on the path of global integration of the country and reaching out to the world.

Speaking at the ceremony, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son assessed that "during 65 years of striving, building and growing, the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam has always strived to excellently complete all assigned tasks, becoming the leading scientific research and training institution on international relations in Vietnam, contributing effectively to the cause of foreign affairs and international integration of the country, and at the same time, it is also the place to train many generations of officials not only for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs but also for foreign affairs agencies of the country".

The history and contributions of the Diplomatic Academy over the past decades have been recognized and highly appreciated by the Party and State leaders, reflected in the awards and noble titles that the Academy has been awarded, including the Order of Ho Chi Minh in 2009 and most recently the First Class Order of Independence in 2019.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son highly appreciated the success of the Academy in promoting autonomy, aligning with the trend of university autonomy and educational innovation. "It can be said that the decision to move towards university autonomy and comprehensively innovate the educational practices of the Academy is a bold and sound decision of both the Academy and the Ministry", “focusing more on Strategic research, East Sea research, training and fostering of foreign affairs officials, information and documents, and building units of the Academy" - the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister said at the ceremony.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son emphasized: The world is in a period of epochal change, with both opportunities and challenges. The new development stage of the country - the era of national development - sets increasingly high requirements and tasks, but is also very glorious for foreign affairs. To realize the vision and strategic goals of national development in the new era, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son requested the Academy to uphold the tradition of solidarity, courage, wisdom, creative integration and thoroughly implement 5 tasks:

First, constantly innovate, stimulate and utilize all advantages and potentials, promote our identity to make comprehensive and substantive contributions to the foreign affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the country in the strategic period from now to 2030, vision 2045. In the immediate future, the Academy needs to continue to effectively organize and implement the Development Strategy for the period 2019 - 2029, closely following the focus of the Ministry's work, promptly summarize, review and supplements to meet the requirements of the new situation. The Academy also has to proactively build a specific and feasible roadmap to raise international stature and prestige, determined to become one of the leading training and research institutions in the region by 2030.

Second, continue to improve the quality of undergraduate and postgraduate training, foster professional and technical skills, in line with the requirements of the country and the industry in the new context, enhance international integration through quality assessment, create a close link  between research and training, between learning and practice; continue to research, explore, promote autonomy, the spirit of “dare to think, dare to do”, put forward initiatives and ideas to help the Academy continue to achieve a groundbreaking development the field of education and training.

Third, strengthen the pioneering role in understanding the global and regional dynamics and the requirements and tasks of national development to constantly improve the quality of research, forecasting and consulting; strongly deploy State-cultural diplomacy and cultural diplomacy; enhancing their role of offering consultation and advice to the Ministry in planning and implementing foreign policies and guidelines. The Academy also need to focus on and invest more in researching the history and traditions of diplomacy, spreading glorious historical pages, especially towards the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the establishment of the Foreign Affairs Sector (2025), while actively contributing to building the theoretical foundation of the Party's foreign affairs, including the content of Foreign Affairs in the Era of national development.

Fourth, constantly improve thinking, methods, skills, boldly apply scientific and technological achievements, digital transformation in training quality management, information and documents research, approaching the advanced level of the region and the world, meeting the increasingly high requirements of foreign affairs and international integration. The Academy also continue to innovate management methods, rearrange the organizational structure and personnel towards professionalism, refinement - compact - strength - performance - validity - efficiency; standardize and develop a team of highly qualified officials, lecturers and researchers; modernize facilities commensurate with the scale of training, soon complete the second facility at 120 Tran Quoc Hoan street.

Fifth, attach great importance to the work of building a strong and trustworthy collective of agencies and units, taking good care of the lives of officials, civil servants, public employees and workers, imbued with the teaching of President Ho Chi Minh: "Officials are the driving force of all work". Personnel organization is a key factor to turning the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam into a core of strategic research on international relations, a finest educational establishment, fostering foreign affairs knowledge and international integration for the Diplomatic sector and the country.

On this occasion, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son highly appreciated the contributions of comrade Pham Lan Dung in her position as the leader who steered the Academy during a period of many changes, excellently completed the assigned tasks, and made many contributions to the innovation and development of the Academy, especially since the Academy became autonomous from 2021 to present. He requested comrade Nguyen Hung Son, together with the leadership team, teachers, researchers, civil servants, and workers, to continue promoting the achievements of the Academy in the coming time.

On behalf of all officials, lecturers, and students of the Diplomatic Academy, comrade Nguyen Hung Son, Acting President of the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam, expressed his sincere and deep gratitude to comrade Bui Thanh Son; comrade Le Hai Binh; leaders and former leaders of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the periods; Generations of leaders, staff, lecturers and students of the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam attended and shared the great joy at the Ceremony and wished all comrades will continue to accompany to create new glorious pages of history of the Academy in the coming time.

With such achievements, Acting President of the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam Nguyen Hung Son believes that the collective of officials, civil servants, lecturers and students of the Academy will continue to promote the spirit of solidarity, the rich tradition and achievements over the past 65 years, continue to effectively fulfill mission of education and training, complete the tasks assigned by their superiors. Regarding receiving and understanding the direction on the vision and development strategy of the Academy from Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son, the Academy needs to strive to continue to enhance the tradition of "Solidarity - Courage - Intelligence - Creativity - Integration", making efforts to "strive" to raise its stature and international reputation, setting the task of determination to rise to the group of leading training and research institutions in the region by 2030./.