(VOVworld)- On Monday, the 29th Diplomatic Conference opened in Hanoi to discuss ways to increase the efficiency of diplomatic activities and international integration to realize the 12^th National Party Congress resolution.

Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong speaks at the conference

Addressing the event, Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong highlighted the development of Vietnam’s diplomatic sector over the past 70 years and lessons learned which include combining national and international strength, harmonizing national interests with international obligations, being persistent with principles and flexible with strategies, enhancing consensus within the Party, army, and the people, promoting Party leadership and State management. The Party leader stressed that the external work is a motivation to realize Vietnam’s two strategic missions of building and safeguarding the nation. Party leader Nguyen Phu Trong said:“We need to focus on promoting our relationship with neighboring and major countries and traditional friends and enhance ASEAN’s central role. We should be persistent with strengthening cooperation on the basis of respecting independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, non-interference to each other’s internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit. The diplomatic sector needs to combine people-to-people diplomacy with culture, art, information, and communication sectors, and bring into play the nation’s soft strength.”