Q: Could the Deputy Minister discuss the significance and purpose of General Secretary and President To Lam's working trip to attend the high-level General Debate of the 81st session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, conduct bilateral activities in the US, and pay a state visit to Canada?
A: From September 20 to 25, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Viet Nam Central Committee and President of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam To Lam and a high-level Vietnamese delegation will attend the high-level General Debate of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly, conduct bilateral activities in the US, and pay a state visit to Canada at the invitation of Governor General of Canada Louise Arbour.
This is General Secretary and President To Lam's first working trip to the United Nations, the US, and Canada since Viet Nam successfully held the 14th National Party Congress, and elected the 16th National Assembly, and People's Councils at all levels for the 2026–2031 term. Taking place against a backdrop of rapid, profound, and epochal changes in the world, this working trip by the General Secretary and President is a clear testament to Viet Nam's foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, self-strengthening, multilateralisation, and diversification, as well as its active pursuit of comprehensive and extensive international integration, making effective use of conditions and resources to open new space and room for the country's development. The trip is also an opportunity to convey, at the highest level, the message of a Viet Nam entering a new era of development with a vision, determination, and strong aspiration to rise.
General Secretary and President To Lam's participation and important speech at the high-level General Debate of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly are highly significant as Viet Nam and the United Nations are jointly working towards the 50th anniversary of the establishment of their relations. This also reaffirms Viet Nam's strong support for and commitment to the central role of the United Nations in multilateral cooperation and the promotion of respect for international law.
On this occasion, General Secretary and President To Lam will also share with senior leaders of other countries the successful lessons learned from 40 years of Doi Moi (Innovation), while putting forward practical initiatives to address common challenges facing humanity, such as climate change, the promotion of sustainable development, and the governance of core technologies of the future, thereby continuing to affirm the country's prestige, position, and new potential on the international stage.
Meanwhile, the General Secretary and President's working trip and bilateral activities in the US will contribute to implementing the common understandings reached by the senior leaders of Viet Nam and the US, while continuing to promote the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership towards stable, substantive, effective, and sustainable development.
This will also be an occasion for the two sides to increase high-level contacts and exchange views on strategic and long-term issues of significance to bilateral relations, while enhancing mutual understanding and seeking support from various circles for Viet Nam and Viet Nam–US relations.
Regarding Canada, building on the sound bilateral relationship and major achievements across various areas of cooperation, this visit by the General Secretary and President will create strong political momentum to make Viet Nam–Canada relations more substantive, balanced, and effective, in line with the two countries' potential, strengths, and needs. At the same time, the visit will open a new stage of more strategic and comprehensive development between the two countries, making a positive contribution to peace and stability in the region and the world.
Q: Could the Deputy Minister discuss Viet Nam's important contributions to the United Nations' common work in recent years?
A: Looking back on the journey so far, we can proudly affirm that relations between Viet Nam and the United Nations are at a very positive and substantive stage of development. From the years of struggle for independence, Viet Nam has now emerged as a particularly trusted partner, making proactive, responsible, and breakthrough contributions to the United Nations' core pillars.
As an active and responsible member of the international community, Viet Nam has continuously enhanced its national standing by proactively participating in leading and shaping global initiatives across many key areas. A notable example is the successful organisation of the opening ceremony for the signature of the United Nations Convention against Cybercrime, widely known among international friends as the Ha Noi Convention, laying an important initial legal foundation for global cybersecurity cooperation.
Our multilateral diplomatic prestige has also continued to achieve important successes, including assuming the chairmanship of the 11th Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons; being re-elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council for the 2026–2028 term; and, for the first time, serving as Chair of the 35th Conference of States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Of particular significance, a Vietnamese representative was elected for the first time as a Judge of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea for the 2026–2035 term, with the highest number of votes of confidence in the region. Most recently, we have also launched a number of initiatives that have made their mark, such as promoting the adoption by the United Nations of a resolution on International Day of Play (June 11) and initiating the 2027–2036 period as the "International Decade of Culture for Sustainable Development.”
In addition, Viet Nam is also a leading model in United Nations reform through its initiative on unified action, the implementation of the sustainable development goals, and gender equality. Viet Nam has consistently received high recognition from the United Nations for having achieved or exceeded the targets for 13 of the 20 objectives of the National Strategy on Gender Equality. Viet Nam's experience in integrating women's roles into the digital transformation process and green economic development has become an inspirational lesson for many developing countries.
In particular, Viet Nam has truly become an ambassador for international peace and humanitarianism. The image of Vietnamese blue beret soldier
bravely and devotedly carrying out their duties in United Nations peacekeeping missions has become a vivid and noble symbol of the peacekeeping mission in conflict-affected areas.
Alongside its contributions in terms of personnel, Viet Nam has consistently maintained substantive financial responsibility by contributing to global emergency relief funds such as the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), the World Health Organisation (WHO), and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), strongly spreading the spirit of international solidarity and mutual assistance.
Q: How does the Deputy Minister assess the current state of cooperation and the prospects for breakthroughs in Viet Nam–US and Viet Nam–Canada relations through this working trip?
A: The achievements made between Viet Nam and the US over more than three decades have been comprehensive and substantive. The two countries have built an increasingly solid foundation for cooperation based on respect for the United Nations Charter, international law, independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, and political systems of each other. At the same time, the scale and scope of cooperation between the two countries have continued to expand across numerous strategic areas. Political trust has been continuously strengthened, while the two sides have maintained regular exchanges and contacts at various levels. Cooperation in addressing the consequences of the resistance war is a bright spot in bilateral relations. The economy, trade, and investment have become driving forces of the relationship, with increasingly strong linkages and complementarity.
The two sides are actively expanding the scope of cooperation into new strategic areas that will shape the future, such as science and technology, innovation, the semiconductor industry, artificial intelligence, energy transition, and the development of high-quality human resources. Defence and security cooperation continues to develop effectively, contributing to consolidating and strengthening political trust between the two sides. At the same time, people-to-people exchanges, education, healthcare, and culture are expanding. The Vietnamese community in the US continues to play a bridging role and make positive contributions to bilateral relations.
Regarding Viet Nam–Canada relations, after more than half a century of diplomatic relations and nearly a decade of implementing the Comprehensive Partnership framework, the two countries have built an increasingly solid foundation for their relationship. Political trust has been strengthened; economic, trade, and investment cooperation has developed dynamically; while cooperation in education and training, science and technology, defence and security, and people-to-people exchanges has become increasingly substantive. In particular, the two sides are working to make areas such as science and technology, innovation, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, clean energy, and human resource development new drivers of bilateral relations.
At the same time, Viet Nam and Canada share many similar views on international law, free trade, and maintaining peace and stability in the region. The two countries have many complementary strengths; Viet Nam is entering a new era of development, identifying science and technology, innovation, digital transformation, and extensive international integration as important drivers for realising the two centenary goals in 2030 and 2045; while Canada is accelerating market diversification and strengthening its engagement with the Indo-Pacific region.
On that basis, we jointly hope that General Secretary and President To Lam's working trip to attend the high-level General Debate of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly, conduct bilateral activities in the US, and pay a state visit to Canada will make an important contribution to further strengthening and deepening relations between Viet Nam and the United Nations, the US, and its partners; promote more substantive and closely connected Viet Nam–Canada relations; and at the same time affirm Viet Nam's proactive, and responsible role in global issues, making positive contributions to peace, stability, cooperation, and development in the region and the world.
Reporter: Thank you very much!
