Party, State leader asks Military Region 1 to position itself as comprehensively strong force

Party General Secretary and State President To Lam asked for continued efforts to build the Military Region 1 into a comprehensively strong force while attending a ceremony in the northern province of Thai Nguyen on April 12 to present the title “Hero of the People’s Armed Forces” to the unit.

The event was organised by the Party Committee and High Command of Military Region 1 under the Ministry of National Defence.

On behalf of Party and State leaders and the Central Military Commission, General Secretary and State President Lam presented the title “Hero of the People’s Armed Forces” to Military Region 1, recognising its particularly outstanding contributions over more than eight decades.

Party General Secretary and State President Lam, who is also Secretary of the Central Military Commission, stressed that Viet Bac - now under Military Region 1 - has long held a strategically important position in the nation’s history of national construction and defence, serving as the strategic northeastern shield of the nation. The region served as a revolutionary base and resistance capital, and was the cradle of Vietnam’s revolutionary armed forces.

He highlighted that the area witnessed the formation of early revolutionary military units, including the Cuu Quoc Army and the Vietnam Propaganda Unit of Liberation Army, predecessors of today’s Vietnam People’s Army.

According to the leader, the armed forces of Military Region 1 have always preserved the noble qualities of “Uncle Ho’s soldiers”, maintaining close ties with the people and actively supporting local communities through poverty reduction, social welfare programmes, disaster relief, and efforts to ensure political security and social order.

Noting the region’s complex terrain, diverse ethnic composition and socio-economic disparities, he warned that hostile forces may attempt to exploit issues related to ethnicity, religion and human rights to undermine national unity and stability. Therefore, the armed forces must remain vigilant, proactive and well prepared for any situation, he asked.

To fulfil future tasks, the General Secretary and State President urged Military Region 1 to continue thoroughly grasping the Party’s guidelines on national defence and military strategy in the new context, maintain a firm control of the situation, and provide timely strategic advice to prevent any unexpected developments.

He also stressed the need to strengthen the denfence zone, closely combine national defence with security, diplomacy and socio-economic development, and safeguard national sovereignty and border security from an early stage and from the grassroots level.

The leader underlined the significance of building the region's armed forces into a politically strong, streamlined, modern and highly disciplined force capable of mastering modern weapons and equipment, improving training quality, and enhancing combat readiness, especially in border, remote and ethnic minority areas, he said.

He emphasised that the armed forces of Military Region 1 must always remain a fighting force, a working force and a labour and production force. They must stay truly close to the people, respect the people, understand the people, learn from the people and take responsibility for them.

He also urged the force to proactively coordinate with local Party committees, authorities, the Fatherland Front and mass organisations to effectively carry out mass mobilisation and specialised communications work, and to thwart attempts to exploit ethnic and religious issues to undermine the revolution and sow division between the people and the Party, the authorities and the military.

The Party and State leader further emphasised the importance of strengthening Party building in the Military Region, strictly implementing Party resolutions on Party building and rectification, preventing ideological degradation and “self-evolution” or “self-transformation”, and fostering a contingent of capable and responsible officers.

Expressing confidence in the region’s tradition of “loyalty, pioneering spirit, solidarity and victory”, General Secretary and President Lam said he believes that the Military Region 1 and people of Viet Bac will continue to unite, overcome challenges and successfully accomplish all tasks entrusted by the Party, State and people, contributing to firmly safeguarding the socialist Vietnamese Fatherland and advancing the country’s development in the new era./.