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Ministry of Defence (Vietnam)

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Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Ministry of National Defence
Bộ Quốc phòng Việt Nam
The emblem of the Ministry of National Defence as well as the People's Army of Vietnam

The headquarters of the Ministry of National Defence in Hanoi
Agency overview
Formed27 August 1945
Preceding agency
  • Ministry of (National) Defence (1945-1946)
    Ministry of (National) Defence - General Command (1946-1947)
    Department of Defence (1947-1948)
    Ministry of Defence - General Command (1948-1949)
    Ministry of Defence - General Command (1949-1976)
    Ministry of (National) Defence (1976-present)[1]
TypeGovernment Ministry
Jurisdiction Government of Vietnam
Headquarters7 Nguyen Tri Phuong Street, Dien Bien Ward, Ba Dinh District, Hanoi
Employees450,000 military[2]
Annual budget$7.8 bn (2023 projection)
Minister responsible
Deputy Minister responsible
WebsiteOfficial Website

The Ministry of National Defence (MOND/MoND or MND; Vietnamese: Bộ Quốc phòng - BQP), alternatively the Ministry of Defence (MoD), fully the Ministry of Defence of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Vietnamese: Bộ Quốc phòng nước Cộng hòa xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam, lit. 'Ministry of State Defence of the nation of Socialist Republic of Viet Nam'),[3] is the governmental ministry of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam that manages, coordinates and supervises military affairs, including all military units, paramilitary units, and similar agencies in the country. The major office of the Ministry of National Defence is located within the ancient Hanoi Citadel. The ministry is operated in compliance with the Constitution and Laws of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, ideologically under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam and the unified State management of the Vietnamese Government. It runs the People's Army Newspaper and the Military Broadcasting Center (QPVN; Vietnamese: Kênh Truyền hình Quốc phòng Việt Nam, lit. 'National Defence Television Channel of Viet Nam') together with the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of Vietnam. Besides press and media agencies, the Ministry of National Defence also owns and administers a number of enterprises, noticeably the Viettel Military Industry and Telecoms Group besides many core businesses of the Vietnamese defence industry.

Organisation

Military Honour Guard Battalion of the Vietnam People's Army of the Ministry of National Defence.

Command structure

According to the 1992 Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the Ministry of National Defence holds the supreme command of the Vietnam People's Army and other paramilitary units.[4] The command organisation of the ministry is composed of the central office, the General Staff (Bộ Tổng tham mưu), the General Political Department of the People's Army (Tổng cục chính trị) and other general departments, departments.

The General Staff is the commanding and co-ordinating institution of the Vietnam People's Army and other paramilitary units, it is currently directed by the Chief of the General Staff and Deputy Minister of Defence who would be also acting minister during the absence of the minister in office. The General Political Department takes charge of political, moral and other activities in the military forces related to the Communist Party of Vietnam, the Department of Politics also operates the system of military court and procuracy.

The General Political Department is under the leadership activities of the Secretariat and often operations under the directly authority of the Central Military Commission. Other general departments (Tổng cục) of the ministry are General Department of Engineering (Tổng cục Kỹ thuật), General Department of Logistics (Tổng cục Hậu cần), General Department of Military Industries and Manufacture (Tổng cục Công nghiệp quốc phòng) and General Department of Military Intelligence (Tổng cục Tình báo quốc phòng or Tổng cục 2). Directly under the ministry are also the Search and Rescue Operations Department (Cục Cứu hộ, cứu nạn) and Department of Foreign Relations (Cục Đối ngoại).

The command structure of the ministry is coordinated by the Central Office (Văn phòng Bộ) which acts at the same time as office of the Central Party Committee of the military forces (Quân ủy Trung ương).[5]

The following is the structure of the central organisation of the Ministry of National Defence:[6]

VPA's structure
VPA's structure

Components

Book cover of 2019 Vietnam National Defence Policy

The Ministry of National Defence is the supreme command of the People's Army of Vietnam which contains several arms and army corps, the Vietnam People's Ground Forces, the Vietnamese People's Navy, the Vietnamese People's Air Force and Air Defence, the Vietnam Border Guard and the Vietnam Coast Guard. To organise the military activities and units, the territory of Vietnam is divided into 7 military regions and the Capital High Command which contains the region of Hanoi.[6]

The principal and core military force of Vietnam is the Vietnam People's Army (VPA)[7] with a regular force of 450,000 soldiers and officers and the reserve force of about 5 million.[2] The land-based units of the VPA consists of four army corps (quân đoàn): 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th; six arms (binh chủng): Artillery, Tank and Armoured Warfare, Sappers, Signals, Engineers and Chemical; seven military regions (quân khu) and one command (bộ tư lệnh): 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th Military Region, 7th Military Region, 9th Military Region and the High Command of the Capital City of Hanoi.[8] The border guard, coast guard, air force-air defence and the navy are organised as arms of the VPA, the navy in particular is divided in five naval regions (vùng hải quân) (from 1st to 5th).[9]

Besides, the Ministry of National Defence also manages a system of academies, universities and research institutes with a total number of 21 academies (học viện), universities (trường đại học) and one college (trường cao đẳng). The principal academy of the ministry if the Vietnam Academy of Defence (Học viện Quốc phòng), it is the only institution for training strategical officers.[10] The Ministry of National Defence has its own branch of economic organisations[11] which contains the Viettel Mobile, one of the leading mobile network operator in Vietnam.

Budget

The annual budget of the Ministry of National Defence occupies approximately 2% of the GDP of Vietnam. The major portion of the budget is used for maintenance of officers, NCOs, soldiers and their readiness for action. Following are the ministry's budgets of recent years:[12]

Year 2005 2006 2007 2008
2023 projection
GDP of Vietnam 839,211 973,791 1,143,442 1,490,000 11,150,705[13][14] 470
Ministry's budget 16,278 20,577 28,922 27,024 185,235[15] 7.807
% per GDP 1.872% 2.194% 2.529% 1.813%
1.661%
Unit
billion VND
billion USD

List of ministers

Further information: Minister of Defence (Vietnam)

References

Notes

  1. ^ "The Ministry of Defence of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam". Viet Nam Ministry of National Defence.
  2. ^ a b Ministry of Defence (2009), White book, p. 67
  3. ^ "Introduction to the Ministry of Defence of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam". Viet Nam Ministry of National Defence online portal. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
  4. ^ Ministry of Defence (2009), White book, p. 52
  5. ^ Ministry of Defence (2009), White book, pp. 55–56
  6. ^ a b Ministry of Defence (2009), White book, p. 109
  7. ^ Ministry of Defence (2009), White book, p. 61
  8. ^ Ministry of Defence (2009), White book, p. 69
  9. ^ Ministry of Defence (2009), White book, p. 72
  10. ^ Ministry of Defence (2009), White book, p. 77
  11. ^ Ministry of Defence (2009), White book, p. 81
  12. ^ Ministry of Defence (2009), White book, p. 38
  13. ^ "GDP Việt Nam sẽ vượt Singapore và Malaysia, đứng thứ ba Đông Nam Á ngay trong năm nay?" [Vietnamese GDP will surpass Singapore and Malaysia, becoming the third biggest in Southeast Asia right this year (2023)?]. CafeF (in Vietnamese). 25 January 2023. Retrieved 4 March 2023.
  14. ^ IMF Projection of 2023
  15. ^ "NGHỊ QUYẾT SỐ 70/2022/QH15 CỦA QUỐC HỘI VỀ PHÂN BỔ NGÂN SÁCH TRUNG ƯƠNG NĂM 2023" [Resolution no. 70/2022/QH15 of the National Assembly on the Distribution of Central Budget of 2023]. National Assembly of Viet Nam. Retrieved 4 March 2023.

Bibliography

  • Ministry of Defence of Vietnam (2009). White book of Defence of Vietnam (in Vietnamese). Hanoi: World Publishing House.
  • Ministry of Defense, Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Vietnam's National Defense in the Early Years of the 21st Century, Ha Noi, 2004.
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