Visitors learn about mine-action activities at the Viet Nam - United States Friendship Festival in Hanoi on November 23, 2025. (Photo: Dinh Hoa)

Setting specific goals

The Party’s perspective on international integration was further concretized in Politburo Resolution No. 59-NQ/TW, dated January 24, 2025. This important document defines international integration as the undertaking of the entire population and the whole political system. The people and businesses are identified as the center, the subjects and the driving forces of the integration process.

People-to-people diplomacy therefore plays a role directly connected to the lives and development of the people. Every friendship program must be assessed based on its substantive contributions to the interests of the country and the community. International trust and understanding must be strengthened to protect the Fatherland early and from afar. The support, solidarity and trust of international friends contribute to creating a favorable environment for Viet Nam to address challenges and promote cooperation.

A survey of a clean-water facility under a World Vision International project in Quang Ngai in 2025. (Photo: WVIV)

The Political Report of the 11th National Congress of the Viet Nam Fatherland Front for the 2026-2031 term also calls for a shift from simple exchanges toward proactively implementing specific cooperation initiatives. The requirement of the new period is to deepen the foundation of friendship through practical values. Friendship nurtured across generations will open up new spaces for development. People-to-people diplomacy must directly serve the goal of building a prosperous people and a strong country in the new era.

Kawaji Takashi, President of the Japan-Viet Nam Peace and Friendship Promotion Council (JVPF), presents scholarships to disadvantaged students in Luc Son Commune, Bac Ninh Province. (Photo: Duc Trong)

The new development perspective requires strong innovation in working methods. People-to-people diplomacy cannot be separated from the country’s goals of green growth and digital transformation. We build national soft power through sincerity and global responsibility. Every friend who understands and accompanies Viet Nam contributes to enhancing the country’s reputation. Viet Nam’s civilized identity and humanitarian values need to be promoted more strongly. This provides a foundation for expanding cooperation and enhancing Viet Nam’s position in the international arena.

Promoting a core and leading role

The Viet Nam Union of Friendship Organizations has identified the 2026-2031 term as a period of continued, strong innovation across the entire system. This is aimed at promoting its core role in people-to-people diplomacy in a substantive, effective and efficient manner.

This role lies first and foremost in its ability to mobilize forces, connect networks and promote coordination across the entire system.

Each member organization, locality, sector, social group and community has its own networks, experience and strengths. When brought together under a common direction, these resources can complement one another. They can expand access to partners and generate combined strength.

The “Colors of ASEAN Culture 2026” Friendship Exchange in Hanoi on August 19, 2026. (Photo: Dinh Hoa)

The distinctive strength of people-to-people diplomacy lies in its ability to directly connect people with people. Relations with people’s organizations, social organizations, scholars, universities, businesses, overseas Vietnamese communities and international friends can create sustainable social foundations for relations between Viet Nam and other countries.

An important goal is to build the Viet Nam Union of Friendship Organizations into a reputable hub for connecting people around the world.

Such reputation is measured not only by the number of partners or the scale of its network, but also by trust, the ability to sustain long-term relationships and the concrete values generated by each connection.

A new partner can open the door to a cooperation program. A network of friends can create additional opportunities for exchange. A relationship nurtured over many years can become a foundation for standing together at important moments.

In this sense, every people-to-people connection can help strengthen the social foundations of foreign relations and the country’s soft power.

More proactive, more practical

The development orientation for the 2026-2031 term of the Viet Nam Union of Friendship Organizations is to build proactive, modern and professional people-to-people diplomacy. This is both a requirement for the entire system and a standard for the process of reform.

Proactiveness is reflected in the ability to identify opportunities and challenges at an early stage, propose cooperation initiatives suited to Viet Nam’s interests, and shift from participation to contribution and from maintaining relations to adding greater depth and value to them.

The Viet Nam - Japan Friendship Association in Sakai City surveys the development of a smart fishing port model at Tam Quan Fishing Port in Gia Lai on January 28, 2026. (Photo: Gia Lai Newspaper and Radio and Television)

Being modern and professional requires people-to-people diplomacy to keep pace with changes in international actors, spaces and modes of interaction, while ensuring consistency from strategic orientation and implementation to the assessment of results. The quality of personnel, advisory capacity, understanding of partners and ability to maintain long-term relations directly determine the depth of activities. However, innovation in methods only has meaning when it delivers substantive results.

These requirements are encapsulated in the motto for the new term: “Proactive adaptation, breakthrough innovation, practicality and effectiveness.” This means being proactive without being complacent; flexible while upholding principles; and innovative while creating concrete value for the country, localities and the people.

Training on people-to-people diplomacy and activities involving foreign non-governmental organizations in Ca Mau on July 9, 2026. (Photo: Cong Dinh)

Effectiveness can be seen in cooperation programs, resources mobilized and connected, research outputs, support for localities and opportunities created for the people. Some values, however, take longer to become apparent, such as trust, goodwill, mutual understanding and networks of international friends.

These values are difficult to measure immediately in numbers, yet they create the resilience of relations between the people of Viet Nam and those of other countries.

The development direction for the new term builds on the shift that took shape during the 2019-2026 period: from “friendship exchanges” to “creating development”; and from “receiving aid” to “proactively connecting and creating development cooperation.”

Throughout this transition, friendship remains the foundation. But on that foundation, connections need to be transformed into concrete, practical and long-term cooperation.

The ultimate goal is the interests of the country and its people.

National Assembly President Meets Korean Friends in Seoul National Assembly (NA) President Tran Thanh Man stressed that Korean non-governmental organisations, associations, scientists and businesses have contributed significantly to major achievements recorded in Vietnam-RoK relations over the past years.

“Positioning” the Role of People-to-People Diplomacy How have the Party and State defined the role and importance of people-to-people diplomacy in the country’s era of rise?