Pham Cao Phong, Vietnamese Ambassador to Canada.
Stephanie Ricci contributed to this story.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shed new mild on the worth of worldwide collaboration and diplomatic relations. The worldwide well being disaster has supplied an unprecedented alternative to regulate to new environments, based on the Vietnamese Ambassador to Canada, Pham Cao Phong.
Ambassador Phong is the primary ambassador to Canada to current his credentials nearly when he met with the previous Canadian Governor-Common Julie Payette over Zoom in 2020.
“Presenting the letter of credence is an honor for each ambassador, because it formally acknowledges an envoy because the distinctive consultant of the sending state within the receiving state,” mentioned Phong. “Sadly, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we could not do it in particular person, however I keep in mind it as a really candy reminiscence.”
Rising up in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, the Vietnamese ambassador didn’t all the time know he would in the future develop into a diplomat, although his management began at a younger age.
“In Vietnam, we’ve got a youth group known as “Doi Thieu nien Tien Phong Ho Chi Minh” (Ho Chi Minh Vanguard Youth) the place I used to be concerned from a really younger age,” he mentioned. “Every now and then, I might lead the affiliation, and this was all through my years at school.”
After graduating from the School of Overseas Affairs in Vietnam, Phong labored as a lecturer and analysis fellow for 15 years on the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam, a prestigious establishment that carries in-depth coaching and analysis on a variety of points to the nation’s authorities. He then joined Vietnam’s Ministry for Overseas Affairs (MoFA) because the secretary to the minister earlier than changing into chief of workers. His first diplomatic posting occurred later when he left for Hong Kong and Macao of the P.R.C because the Consulate Common of Vietnam.
Phong first got here to Canada as a visiting analysis fellow on the Asia Pacific Analysis Middle in affiliation with the College of Toronto College and York College.
“My activity is to contribute to the event of the bilateral relationship and cooperation between the 2 international locations and to handle our embassy right here,” mentioned Phong. “We even have to guard the protection of the Vietnamese finding out or dwelling in Canada.”
Each international locations have cultivated rising diplomatic relations for practically 50 years, and Vietnam has been Canada’s largest buying and selling companion among the many Affiliation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
The diplomat declared throughout a seminar final week that the two-way commerce turnover between Vietnam and Canada elevated by 28.5 % within the first seven months of 2021, indicating a gradual and complementary buying and selling partnership. Each international locations are additionally members of the Complete and Progressive Settlement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
“It is vitally attention-grabbing to see that is the economies of our two international locations are complementary, however not opponents,” he mentioned. “We can’t examine the dimensions of the financial system of Vietnam with that of Canada. We’re a small nation, however you see that within the [context] of commerce, the commodities and items are totally different.”
The Southeast Asian nation has seen exponential growth and financial development for the reason that Nineteen Nineties, giving it the status of an financial miracle. This success is credited to a shift in mindset that steered the nation in direction of a socialist-oriented market financial system, explains Phong.
“We acknowledged that market financial system isn’t the product of capitalism, however that may be a product of mankind,” he mentioned. “We see the market alternatives supplied to us, after which we attempt to cooperate with others to provide what the world wants. That is the best way we will export our items to different international locations as we shifted from agricultural merchandise to industrial merchandise.”
“Vietnam’s international coverage is that we persistently implement the international coverage of independence, self-reliance, friendship, cooperation and growth,” he provides. “We wish to guarantee the best pursuits of the state and nation on the premise of the Ideas of the United Nations and Worldwide Legislation, and to ensure the equality and cooperation for mutual advantages with all world international locations.”
Ambassador Phong shares that Vietnam is now within the means of digitizing its financial system with synthetic intelligence “to meet up with the world” and optimizing their COVID-19 response.
When the pandemic first hit, Vietnam was extremely profitable in containing its unfold of the virus. Nevertheless, a surge in each day circumstances since Might 2021 has put the nation in a tricky spot because it enters its fourth wave, partially as a consequence of vaccine shortages. Phong explains that the state is presently dashing up a vaccination rollout plan and is looking for worldwide help.
In terms of establishing diplomatic relations, the ambassador says he acknowledges the diplomats he meets for the particular person they’re past their place. He provides that, in his personal expertise, glorious management goes with sturdy dedication, however “discuss comfortable,” highlighting the worth of respect, collective energy, and of cultivating relationships with colleagues to successfully work collectively.
“Once we wish to construct up a friendship, I inform myself that I ought to come to the particular person with sincerity to construct up a friendship,” he mentioned. “As ambassadors, we should additionally protect our future. Ambassadors are at the beginning cultural ambassadors earlier than political ambassadors.”
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