Speaking Out

Nguyen Sy Xung

The publication of this edition of Diplomat coincides almost exactly with the anniversary of the birth of Vietnam’s legendary leader Ho Chi Minh. Although diplomatic relations between Turkey and Vietnam are by no means new, Ambassador Nguyen Sy Xung, who arrived in Ankara in March, is his country’s first ambassador to this country. We asked him to reflect on the history and development of Vietnam, its place in international relations and the prospects for its relations with Turkey.

Turkey and Vietnam formally established relations in 1978 but the exchange of diplomats has been much more recent. A Turkish Embassy was established in Hanoi in 1997 and a Vietnamese commercial office in Istanbul in October 1999. The following year brought the opening of a Vietnamese consulate general in Istanbul. The consulate general was upgraded to the status of an embassy and moved to Ankara in 2003. The commercial office remains in Istanbul.

I have come to Turkey in an important year for Vietnam. On May 19, we will celebrate the 115th anniversary of the birth of our national leader Ho Chi Minh. On April 30, we marked the 30th anniversary of the liberation of South Vietnam and the reunification of Vietnam. On September 2 this year we will also celebrate the 60th anniversary of independence won by Ho Chi Minh in 1945.

Ho Chi Minh was a great leader who had to fight first against colonialism and then against imperialism. He was also a poet and writer who wrote a prison diary in the form of poems. In remembering him now, we are focusing not just on his life but on the message which he left us when he passed away in 1969.

In his testament, Ho Chi Minh wrote: “My ultimate wish is that our entire Party and people, closely joining their efforts, will build a peaceful, reunified, independent, democratic and prosperous Vietnam, and make a worthy contribution to the world revolution.” Today, we are happy to be witnessing some of what he desired. The whole of the country has been liberated. Perhaps Vietnam is still not a prosperous country, but there has been a degree of prosperity. When we were at war we had to import rice and other food items; now we are one of the world’s 3-4 largest producers of rice and we export the commodity. We are also exporting coffee, pepper, tea, crude oil, textiles, garments, footwear, seafood and most recently furniture and electronics.

Doi moi

Vietnam embarked on the Doi moi reforms in 1986. Market institutions are operating. For the past decade-and-a-half, Vietnam has enjoyed an average GDP growth rate of over 7%. The share of industry in GDP has risen to over 40% and the share of services to 38%. Exports were US$26bn in 2004. There are 5,000 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects. FDI was over US$4.1bn in 2004 alone. Foreign invested enterprises contribute nearly 15% of GDP, more than 30% of export value and 4.9% of state budget revenues while generating tens of thousands of jobs. As you travel from North to South or from the mountains to the delta, you see construction sites everywhere.

Great attention is paid to social issues. More than one third of total investment capital is spent on poverty reduction, human resource development, education, training, science, technology, health and culture. 1.5 million jobs were generated annually from 1995 to 2003, and by international standards about 25m people escaped poverty between 1993 and 2002. Vietnam has been recognised by the United Nations as one of the world’s most successful countries in poverty reduction.

Citizens’ rights are guaranteed by the Constitution. Religious institutions, for example, are increasing. The legal system has been improved to enhance the rule of law. The right of the people to mastery is recognised in the principle “people know, people discuss, people do, people monitor and people benefit.”

Foreign policy

In line with our consistent policy of peace, friendship, cooperation and development, Vietnam has now established diplomatic relations with 168 countries and trade relations with 165. These countries include all the major powers. Vietnam’s position in its region and in the world has been strengthened. We have been active members of regional organisations like ASEAN and from a wider perspective APEC. In October 2004, Hanoi hosted the fifth summit of ASEM, which brings together the ASEAN members and other East Asian countries with the European Union member countries. The APEC summit will be held in Vietnam in 2006. All this shows that Vietnam’s position ahs been acknowledged in the region and in the world.

We have been active members of the non-aligned group and the UN organisations. We have applied to be a non-permanent member of the Security Council, for the first time ever, for the period 2008-9. In this we have received great support from many friendly countries and we are hopeful of the outcome.

We are now in the final stage of our accession negotiations with the WTO. Hopefully this will take place by the end of this year, but the procedures have to be followed and the various multilateral and bilateral negotiations have to be concluded. We realise that there we face some challenges – there are a lot of standards and rules. But we regard this as an opportunity, and opportunities are not there permanently if you don’t make the effort to take them. In the modern world of interdependence no country can develop with a policy of shutting itself off from the outside.

Vietnam and Turkey

The growth of our relations with Turkey can be seen as a part of this process of developing stronger relations with the outside world. I have already noticed that there are many similarities between the two countries. The two countries have populations of comparable size. We have both been through wars of liberalisation led by national heroes Atatürk and Ho Chı Minh. Both countries have seen rapid economic growth in the past few years. The people of both countries are open-minded and friendly. Both countries have their own very specific tea cultures as well.

Like Turkey, Vietnam has a long coastline with plenty of beaches. Turkey has a very strong tourism sector and I think this is something we can learn from. We also have a lot of potential in this area.

My priority is naturally to consolidate and strengthen the already good political relations between Vietnam and Turkey. I also look forward to intensified ties in the areas of economy, business, education and tourism. I really hope that during my assignment relations will be brought to the highest level with concrete improvements in all fields. All being well, I will also still be here to celebrate the 30th anniversary of our diplomatic relations in 2008.

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Ho Chi Minh at 115

Ho Chi Minh was born in central Vietnam in 1890. His given name was Nguyen Sinh Cung. His father was a teacher and civil servant dismissed from office for refusing to serve at court. His mother died when he was 11. Ho Chi Minh studied in Vinh and Hue, taught in a fishing village and worked as a kitchen hand on passenger liners and in hotels in Paris, London and the Eastern USA. An avid reader, he became a founder of the French communist party. At the age of 33, he travelled to Russia, where he joined the Southeast Asia bureau of Comintern. He went on to carry out clandestine political activities in China, Europe and Thailand. In 1931 he founded the Vietnamese Communist Party in Hong Kong. He was sentenced to death by the French in 1930, detained by the British in 1931-33 and jailed in China in 1941-2, where he wrote his Prison Diary, the most famous of his various political and literary works. In common with Mao Tse Tung he always emphasise the revolutionary role of the peasantry. Upon the departure of the Japanese in 1945, Ho Chi Minh’s Viet Minh independence movement took over Hanoi and he read a Declaration of Independence proclaiming the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. There followed a guerilla struggle against the original French colonial power, culminating in the defeat of the French at Dien Bin Phu in 1954 and the division of Vietnam into socialist North and US-backed South. The North was the scene of a major redistribution of land, a radical move during which the West alleged

that tens of thousands died and were imprisoned. All-out war set in between North Vietnam and the Saigon government and its US allies. While the US bombed Hanoi, arms and men trickled south via the thousands of kilometres of roads and paths that formed the so-called Ho Chi Minh trail. Ho Chi Minh’s health deteriorated and the war was conducted by a collective leadership. “Uncle Ho” nevertheless remained a powerful symbol for his countryfolk and for many in the anti-war movement in the West. Known for his personal modesty and asceticism, he died in 1969, six years before Vietnam was reunited at the expense of three million lives.