US embassy cable - 03HANOI1510

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HANOI 001510 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/BCLTV 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, VM 
SUBJECT:  ORGANIZATIONAL OVERVIEW OF VIETNAM'S 
--       MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS 
 
 
1.  (U)  SUMMARY: A new Prime Ministerial degree in March 
2003 reaffirmed the MFA's main diplomatic functions as the 
GVN's main foreign affairs agency and also confirmed its 
leadership over Vietnam's Border Commission and increasingly 
active Committee for Overseas Vietnamese.  The new decree is 
unlikely to change the substance or style of the MFA's work, 
which is divvied up among 28 regional and functional 
departments.  The MFA continues to attract some of the 
brightest young Vietnamese students.  MFA careers tend to be 
devoted to a single country and/or specialty.  The Americas 
Department is notably strong, with most officials having 
served and/or studied in the U.S.   END SUMMARY. 
 
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NEW LEGAL FRAMEWORK 
------------------- 
 
2.  (U)  Prime Ministerial Decree 21, issued March 10, 
confirmed the MFA's lead role as the GVN's main foreign 
affairs agency and identified its specific tasks.  It 
updated and formalized a similar Decree 82 from November 10, 
1993 on the MFA's tasks and responsibilities.  According to 
this revised legal framework, the MFA -- under the 
leadership of the Government and Prime Minister -- has 
explicit duties, inter alia, to: 
-- establish or guide diplomatic and consular relations with 
other countries and international organizations; 
-- represent the nation and conduct diplomatic relations; 
-- manage representative activities in foreign countries and 
with international organizations, including the UN and 
others, according to international law; 
-- make arrangement for high level official visits overseas 
as well as receiving high-level foreign visitors; 
-- arrange conferences and seminars on international 
affairs; 
-- express the official viewpoints and positions of Vietnam 
on international issues; 
-- monitor foreign press reports regarding Vietnam; 
-- oversee the activities of foreign reporters in Vietnam; 
and, 
-- protect the interests of the nation and the interests and 
rights of Vietnamese organizations and citizens overseas 
according to Vietnamese and international law. 
 
3.  (U)  Decree 21 also ratified some new responsibilities 
and organizational changes that had been quietly introduced 
over the past decade, most notably oversight over Vietnam's 
Border Commission and its Committee on Overseas Vietnamese. 
(These slipped under MFA control in October 2001 and 
November 1995, respectively.)   Both organizations have had 
more public roles in the past several years due to ongoing 
negotiations with both the PRC and Cambodia on border 
issues, and as the GVN increasingly reaches out to the Viet 
Kieu population, most recently during the U.S. visit of 
Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Binh Din, who is also head of 
the latter Committee. 
 
4.  (U)  According to Vu Thi Tinh, an expert in the MFA's 
Department for Organization and Personnel, Decree 21 should 
be viewed as part of the GVN's "administrative reform master 
plan," but should have little practical impact on the day-to- 
day functioning of the MFA.  Tinh noted several key points 
in the decree: 
--Previously, a minister-equivalent had headed the Border 
Commission but now a deputy minister, Le Cong Phung, 
oversees its work; and, 
-- Decree 21 created a new entity, the Center for External 
Economic Information and Informatics.  Previously, this had 
existed as an office within the Department for Economic 
Affairs.  Tinh said that the GVN decided to separate out 
this Center because MFA diplomatic activities "are more and 
more focused on economic cooperation and require more modern 
communications efforts." 
 
--------- 
STRUCTURE 
--------- 
 
5.  (U)  Administratively, the MFA is broken down into 28 
units, largely on regional or functional specialties. 
The regional Departments, each headed by a Director General 
and usually supported by 2-3 Deputy Directors General, 
include: 
-- Americas: covering the U.S., Canada, Central and South 
Americas (its Director General has the concurrent title of 
Assistant Foreign Minister).  One of its DDGs concurrently 
serves as the head of the inter-agency "Vietnam Office for 
Seeking Missing Personnel," which is our key interlocutor on 
all POW/MIA issues; 
-- West Asia - Africa: responsible for about 70 countries-- 
including Iraq -- although the GVN is without diplomatic 
presence in most of these; 
-- ASEAN:  handling all ASEAN affairs and meetings -- 
including the ARF and PMC -- but not bilateral relations; 
-- Asia I:  supervising ties with the PRC, Taiwan, the 
Koreas, Japan, and Mongolia; 
-- Asia II:  overseeing relations with Australia, New 
Zealand, Laos, the Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, 
Thailand, Singapore, Burma, Cambodia, and South Asia; 
-- Europe I:  maintaining relations with Russia, the former 
Soviet republics, Eastern Europe, and Yugoslavia; and, 
-- Europe II:  promoting ties with Western, Northern, and 
Southern Europe. 
 
6.  (U)  Functional components, also usually headed by DGs, 
consist of: 
-- Department for External Policies (sometimes called the 
Policy Planning Department), which performs analyses and 
provides advice to help the MFA's leadership, similar to S/P 
and/or INR; 
-- Department for Economic Affairs, which collects and 
analyzes information concerning the world economics and 
develops economic policy proposals; 
-- Department for Multilateral Economic Cooperation, which 
provides analyses and advice on policies concerning 
international economic integration.  This department also 
takes the lead on APEC issues, while the Ministry of Trade, 
with MFA participation, handles WTO issues; 
-- Department for International Laws and Treaties, which 
provides advice on legal matters concerning Vietnam's 
treaties and relations with other countries and 
international organizations, including the signing of 
international conventions (and is our interlocutor on 
counter-terrorism conventions, the ICOC, and the ICC); 
-- International Organizations, responsible for Vietnam's 
participation in more than 60 international organizations, 
as well as handling all of our human rights inquiries.  The 
IO Department is also our interlocutor on the long-standing 
negotiations over a Counter-narcotics agreement; 
-- Department for Protocol; 
-- Department for Culture - UNESCO, which provides advice on 
policies in cultural cooperation and relations with 
different countries and with UNESCO; 
-- Department for Information and Press, which acts as the 
MFA's spokesperson and provides press advice concerning 
Vietnam's foreign policy.  It also deals with resident 
foreign press members, issuing their visas and press 
credentials as well as requests for meetings and travel; 
-- Center for Foreign Press Service, which provides 
assistance to visiting foreign journalists.  The center can 
arrange appointments, set up interviews and provides 
assistants/interpreters; 
-- Department for Organization and Personnel, the equivalent 
of State's Bureau of Human Resources; 
-- Department for Administration and Accountancy, 
responsible for the MFA's finances in Vietnam and overseas; 
-- Department for Consular Affairs, which manages consular 
relations, including our ongoing bilateral discussions on a 
protocol on adoptions.  This Department also handled the 
2001/2 Montagnard issues, including negotiations with UNHCR 
and Cambodia on the short-lived Tripartite Agreement, given 
its responsibility for Vietnamese citizens.  In addition, 
this department, after receiving notification and 
documentation from the Protocol Department, issues visas to 
foreign diplomatic personnel; 
-- the Inspectorate, the MFA's internal auditor.  It also 
deals with concerned letters of complaints and denunciation 
within its diplomatic community in and outside the country; 
-- the Executive Office, which coordinates the MFA's 
contacts with other ministries as well as diplomatic 
missions overseas; 
-- Committee for Overseas Vietnamese; 
-- Border Commission; 
-- Diplomatic Service of Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), which 
handles the work of foreign consulates general there, 
including requests for meetings and travel; 
-- Institute for International Relations, a rough equivalent 
of NFTAC, although it also offers undergraduate degrees for 
would-be diplomats and others interested in international 
affairs; 
-- International Affairs Weekly, the MFA's official journal; 
-- Center for External Economic Information and Infomatics, 
which serves as a link for domestic economic organizations 
and foreign counterparts.  In addition, the Center manages 
computer resources for the MFA; and, 
-- Department for Diplomatic Service Corps, which provides 
such services as housing and employment of local staff for 
the diplomatic community (although its role has diminished 
dramatically as most missions nowadays are able directly to 
hire and to secure housing).  The MFA also runs its own car 
rental agency, to handle the needs of visiting delegations. 
 
-------------------------------- 
ASSIGNMENT PROCESS AND PRACTICES 
-------------------------------- 
 
7.  (U)  The MFA's Department for Organization and Personnel 
is responsible for MFA assignments, both domestic and 
foreign.  Concerning foreign assignments, Huu Quoc Chinh, an 
expert in that department, said that the MFA's senior 
leadership gives this issue "a great deal of attention."  An 
MFA internal committee, chaired by the Department for 
Organization and Personnel, reviews applications for 
assignments on behalf of the foreign minister or one of his 
deputies.  According to Chinh, MFA officials are normally 
assigned only to the countries covered by the departments in 
which they are currently serving.  This provides "more 
continuity and expertise," Chinh claimed.  No one may be 
assigned overseas until he/she is beyond the MFA's 
probationary period of three to five years.  However, in 
some "special" cases, the person can apply after one year, 
Chinh noted.  Personnel from functional departments, 
however, have somewhat greater leeway in their overseas 
assignments, however. 
 
8.  (U)  Separately, Tran Viet Tu, senior expert in the West 
Asia - Africa Department, pointed out that the GVN views the 
background and training in an individual closely before 
deciding on an overseas assignment.  Similar to the Chinese 
system, he noted, Vietnamese diplomats tend to specialize in 
one area, building up an expertise in a language as well as 
political and cultural issues.  Tu noted that, in his case, 
"it is unlikely" he would ever be assigned outside the Arab 
world, since he has the language and experience in that 
region. 
 
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Comment 
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9.  (U)  The MFA continues to attract among the GVN's most 
talented and (not surprisingly) internationally savvy 
cadres, even in this era of growing private sector 
opportunities for the best and the brightest.  Many are 
second generation diplomats, including most recently the son 
of former Ambassador to the U.S. and now Deputy Foreign 
Minister Le Van Bang (who has now sought reassignment from 
the ASEAN Department to the Americas Department).  President 
Tran Duc Luong's son is also an MFA official. 
 
10.  (U)  Our experience with the Americas Department in 
particular has been very good.  Its North American division 
and US/Vietnam division staff appears among the most 
impressive within the MFA.  Most (apart from AFM and DG 
Nguyen Duc Hung) have served previously and/or studied at 
the graduate level in the United States, and understand our 
culture and political system well.  They likely sometimes 
find themselves in the uncomfortable position of having to 
deliver a demarche that they know may well be counter- 
productive when dealing with us.  The strident official 
reactions to irritants like the Vietnam Human Rights Act and 
catfish dumping cases likely originate from the senior 
leadership and/or the Party's Commission on External 
Relations, where the levels of expertise on the U.S. are 
less strong and where ideology plays a more central role. 
In such cases, the advice of the more knowledgeable Americas 
staff may not count heavily enough, unfortunately. 
BURGHARDT