The following is a press release from the British Council. Their thoughts and opinions are their own.

The UK puts the health of students and staff at the heart of decisions whilst making sure high-quality teaching continues. The UK universities work to ensure their courses help students achieve their academic goals, regardless of the mode of delivery.

• Six measures have been taken to reassure the confidence of the international students to study in the UK: student support during the coronavirus quarantine, a special financial relief programme, support for mental health and wellbeing, access to public health services, access to COVID testing, and access to vaccines.
• The top five most popular courses among Thai students in the UK are business management (60%), law (10%), engineering and technology (6%), social studies (5%), and creative arts and design (3%).

Bangkok, 17 February 2021 — The British Council and the British Embassy in Bangkok shared the latest statistics on Thai higher education students studying in the UK. From a total of 15,457 Thai students choosing to study in English-speaking countries, 6,880 are studying in the UK. The top five most popular subjects among Thai students in the UK are business management (60%), law (10%), engineering and technology (6%), social studies (5%), followed by creative arts and design (3%).

The six measures are introduced to ensure the health and safety of the international students studying in the UK: 1) student support during the coronavirus quarantine, 2) a special financial relief programme, 3) support for mental health and wellbeing, 4) access to public health services, 5) convenient access to COVID testing, and 6) access to COVID-19 vaccines on the same basis as other UK citizens. The British Council’s scholarships are introduced to support the students to further their education in the UK – GREAT scholarships and Women in STEM scholarships.

“The British Council is an international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We build connections, understanding, and trust between people in the UK and Thailand through arts and culture, education and the English language said Helga Stellmacher, Director of the British Council in Thailand . “The UK’s academic reputation is world-renowned. According to the recent Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2021, two universities out of the UK’s world-class higher education institutions nationwide are listed in the Top 10, including Oxford University as the world’s number 1 institution, seven others in the Top 50, and an additional 26 universities in the world’s Top 200. Quality is government-guaranteed. The UK’s 162 higher education institutions are all included in a rigorous, state-approved quality assurance programme.

Alexandra McKenzie, Deputy Ambassador, the British Embassy Bangkok , said “Despite the challenges facing the world because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK continues to be overwhelmingly in favour of international students joining UK universities. We are taking a close look at the situation and plan to react where necessary with measures for the benefit of all international students furthering their studies in the UK. The six key measures are as follows:

1. Food and essentials while self-isolation

The UK government is working closely with every university in the UK to supply food as well as other necessities and medication to self-isolated students. There are qualified staff in place to provide students with updates and consultations concerning COVID-19.

1. Special student support

Universities’ student support and welfare teams are always available to provide vulnerable students with advice and special care. In specific cases, immediate hardship funding can also be made available by universities for students in need. Support might include help for international students facing additional costs arising from having to maintain accommodation in more than one location or assistance to help students access teaching remotely.

1. Support for mental health and wellbeing

Onboarding activities will be available for all students to promote positive interactions and relationships as long as they comply with strict public health measures and operate safely during the COVID-19 outbreak. In many universities, the international buddy schemes pairs international students with the aim of creating better relationships, while facilitating the sharing of ideas, and circulating useful advice among participants.

1. Access to public health services

All international students have access to public health services under the UK’s NHS programme, which includes online and emergency services.

1. Access to COVID-19 testing

After following the correct arrivals procedure, students should follow instructions on ongoing asymptomatic testing as set out by universities. The ambition is to work with all universities to continue to build testing provision at their institutions, including the use of lateral flow devices (LFDs).

1. Access to COVID-19 vaccines

International students who reside in the UK and have registered with a local GP will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccination on the same basis as other UK citizens.

Ms. Alexandra continued, “Last year, the UK introduced a new Graduate Route that provides a period of two years for undergraduate or master’s students to stay in the UK to work or look for work after they have completed their degree in the UK. International doctoral graduates will be able to stay in the UK for three years after completion of their studies. International students studying by distance/blended learning remain eligible to apply for the Graduate Route as long as they complete their final term in the UK”

“In addition, under the Student Route, international students can apply for a newly improved student visa six months before the course start date. After graduation, those eligible will also be able to apply for the Graduate Route. All these initiatives are meant to promote cultural diversity, and a multicultural learning and working environment in the UK, to which international students contribute substantially. The UK is expected to attract as many as 600,000 international students by 2030,” said Ms. Alexandra.

Uraiwan Samolee, Head of Education Services, the British Council , pointed out that the UK remains the most popular destination for Thai higher education students. “In the academic year 2018/2019, there were 6,880 Thai university students in the UK, which represents 45% of the total 15,457 Thai students furthering their studies in English speaking countries. The US was in second place with 5,451 students (35%) followed by Australia 2,528 (16%), and Canada 598 (4%). Statistics show that the top five most popular subjects among Thai students in the UK are business management (60%), law (10%), engineering and technology (6%), social studies (5%), and creative arts and design (3%).” added Ms. Uraiwan.

“We still believe that the UK remains the number one higher education destination for Thai students despite the COVID-19 pandemic. The UK’s academic and research are world-class. All universities are working hard to welcome international students and have action procedures in place to keep students, staff, and local communities safe. This year, there are 28 GREAT Scholarships for master’s degree students, with a minimum approximate scholarship value of 412,000 baht each and more than 11,500,000 baht available in total. Additionally, we introduced the first Women in STEM scholarships for South East Asia countries; including Thailand. This new scheme is aimed at supporting women who wish to pursue their master’s degrees in UK universities in areas related to Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (STEM). This ambitious scholarship scheme includes tuition fees, monthly stipend, travel costs, visa and health coverage fees. The scholarship is also open to women with dependents to apply and contains a provision for scholars that might need a short pre-sessional English course to achieve the language level needed to undergo their studies.

“In the meantime, the prospective students who are interested in furthering their studies in the UK should plan and prepare by keeping up to date with course details and university updates. There are a number of scholarships introduced this year as well as the free online course for you to experience from home. You should also keep up to date on the latest news from universities and the UK government as well as changes in international travel requirements,” said Ms. Uraiwan.

The British Council has recently hosted a press conference on ‘Get Ready for Study UK 2021’ at the British Council Siam Square, Wittayakit building Bangkok. For more information, visit https://study-uk.britishcouncil.org or www.britishcouncil.or.th , or follow ‘British Council Thailand’ Facebook page.

More help will be given to students and seniors to enable them to access digital resources, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat said yesterday.

He noted that in the ongoing stay-home period, families have been making fuller use of digital technology for home-based learning, entertainment, ordering meals and keeping in touch with their friends and family members.

The value of having access to digital technology is clear, he said in his fourth Budget speech this year, adding that it has enabled people to connect with and support one another safely during the corona-virus pandemic.

“In a post-Covid world, having all on board digital channels will open up exciting new possibilities for different members of the community to engage with and support each other,” Mr Heng, who is also the Finance Minister, told Parliament.

“Going forward, digital inclusion should be an important way for us to strengthen social resilience,” he said.

“Regardless of age or resources, all members of our society should have access to digital resources, with no one left behind.”

Mr Heng said the Ministry of Education will “accelerate the timeline” for all secondary school students to own a digital learning device as part of its longer-term plans to support digital literacy for all students.

Education Minister Ong Ye Kung will announce details of the accelerated timeline when they are ready, he added.

In March, Mr Ong announced during the debate on his ministry’s budget that every secondary school student would own a digital learning device, which can be subsidised using Edusave funds, by 2028.

He said that all students would get a $200 Edusave top-up to support the purchase and those from lower-income households would get further subsidies so they would not have to pay any of the cost out-of-pocket.

Students have already gone through about four weeks of home-based learning during the circuit breaker period, which ends next week, but some students from lower-income families may not have digital access at home, Mr Heng said yesterday.

In March, Mr Ong announced during the debate on his ministry’s budget that every secondary school student would own a digital learning device, which can be subsidised using Edusave funds, by 2028. He said all students would get a $200 Edusave top-up to support the purchase and those from lower-income households would get further subsidies so they would not have to pay any of the cost out-of-pocket.

He said the Education Ministry has loaned out more than 22,000 computing devices and Internet dongles to these students for them to benefit from full home-based learning and continue to connect with their teachers and friends.

For senior citizens, Mr Heng said the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) will launch a “Seniors Go Digital” movement to support them to adopt digital channels and equip them with the digital skills to do so.

He said this will enable seniors to stay in contact with their families and friends, and help care teams and volunteers to reach out to seniors more effectively.

The move will require support from family, friends and the wider community, Mr Heng said.

A “Digital Ambassadors” movement will also be launched to rally the community and volunteers to help seniors acquire digital skills, he added.

“For seniors from lower-income households who wish to learn but are unable to afford the devices, we will also provide them with financial support,” he said.

Mr Heng encouraged young people with digital skills, as well as corporate companies, to step forward and be involved in the programme.

The Minister for Communications and Information and the IMDA will announce more details at a later date, he added.

Australia’s skills gap problem could potentially cost the economy AU$10 billion in growth over the next four years.

According to a recent report by RMIT and Deloitte Access Economics, Australia will need 156,000 more digital technology workers by 2025, which is roughly one in four jobs created during that period.

A large contributing factor to that problem is there just aren’t generally enough people enrolling into science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) subjects. A more concerning issue within that is there are even fewer women than men.

At the end of last year, Australia’s Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel revealed the country’s STEM workforce graduate figure for females was around 29% in 2016 and 27% five years earlier. He said, while it was a “move in the right direction”, there was still a long way to go before the country would reach gender parity .

“It’s influenced enormously by home and parents. The decision for a young woman is influenced enormously by peer pressure, teachers, and role models, and there is a lot of effort … to try to redress it, but it takes time,” he said, while fronting a Senate Committee.

“There has been progress, but the rate of progress is very, very small.”

This lack of improvement in numbers was confirmed by a study undertaken by a researcher at the Australian National University (ANU). The research revealed that while there are large numbers of initiatives in Australia aimed at increasing female participation in STEM, there is still little evidence of how effective these programs are.

Despite this, tertiary educators remain undeterred from trying, and are placing greater focus and effort than ever before to improve the gender parity in STEM subjects offered by their respective institutions.

See also: Engineering careers are hot. Here’s how women can catapult into the male-dominated field. (TechRepublic)

Melbourne’s Monash University boasts it has the highest numbers of female IT students in Australia, with around 30% constituting in its coursework degrees, and 39% making up graduate research. But it acknowledges more could be done and continues to make a concerted effort to show female students, such as those still in high school through outreach programs, that “IT isn’t just a geeky masculine stereotype, which it has been for so long, and that it’s for everyone”.

“We’d love to achieve more of an equilibrium with the large number of men that we currently have,” Yolande Strengers, associate professor of digital technology and society and associate dean of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) at Monash University, told ZDNet.

“It’s a long road dependant on many, many things. One of the things that really creates challenges for all departments of IT is that there just isn’t the numbers of women interested in enrolling into these kinds of subjects. That’s why we have to make our courses appealing and attractive.”

The university also hosts an alumni mentoring program within the STEM faculties that link up current female and non-binary students with those who previously studied at Monash and have gone on to have careers in IT. Last year alone, the university saw 65 mentors and mentees participate, which according to Strengers, was the “largest cohort ever” even when the program had to shift online due to the pandemic.

Monash further cemented its EDI strategy with the release of its inaugural annual report [PDF] that not only outlines what the university has done to date to address issues around EDI, but also what’s planned for the next year. Strengers is optimistic it will also serve as a conversation starter with other universities.

“It’s a way of demonstrating what we’re doing, what we plan to do, and opening up those conversations with other universities,” she said.

The University of Wollongong (UOW) has also recognised the necessity to address the gender parity issue at tertiary level in STEM. For the last five years, the university has been running what it refers to as a “capstone project” for students studying computer science and IT. Under this project, students are matched with industry partners to help solve real-world problems.

“In that subject close to 20% of our students are female, and it hasn’t really changed for the past five or so years. That’s an interesting indicator because doing that subject means the students are pretty close to graduation, and so that gives us an indicator of how many are entering into the workforce,” said Mark Freeman, UOW School of Computing and Information Technology senior lecturer and associate dean of EDI.

Freeman warned the lack of diversity increases potential outcome risks as future technologies are being developed.

“If we don’t have solutions that involve participation from members across a broad spectrum with clear inclusions of all genders and different diversity group, then the solutions won’t meet the needs of society,” he said.

“We’ve identified through the past that IT and computer science has been a male-dominated industry, and we’ve only looked at problems in one particular way, but with diversity and greater participation then we’ll be able to see a lot more positive systems in place. Tools and technologies will no longer be just from a homogenous, male perspective.”

Read also: AI and ethics: The debate that needs to be had

Like Monash, the regional university has been actively engaged with school students in something it calls the In2Uni program.

“It’s about realising that there are some disciplinary areas, in particular, in STEM and ones that have a heavy reliance on mathematics, it’s a little bit late to target year 11 and 12 students because they’ve already made up their minds … so these programs go all the way back to year one students, and they build up complexity in different subjects and go all the way to year 12,” Freeman explained.

Masterclasses are also offered to senior high school students during school holidays days. “They get a credit equivalent to one subject when they enter university … we usually get just over 20% female participation in these masterclasses. It gives them exposure and the idea to start thinking about IT and computer science is something they could be interested it,” Freeman said.

Over at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), associate dean of equity and diversity in engineer Lucy Marshall explained that enrollment by female engineering students has grown substantially in the last five years. Currently, females comprise where of 28% of total student population in engineering, compared to five years ago when it was only 19%.

Despite the positive uptick, only 13% of female engineering students are graduating, Marshall said.

She attributed something known as negative attrition could be to blame, and one area that the UNSW has specifically been attempting to address through creating inclusive classrooms and introducing activities to make students feel professionally and socially supported.

“Positive attrition is people who start studying engineering but because of their own personal goals or what they discover through the degree, they realise it’s not the best profession for them … and so they discontinue the degree. For those reasons, that’s a good thing; it’s not that they found something that was lacking within the degree or they weren’t connected. It was more they had a difference in what they desire in their career,” she said.

“What we focus on is what we can do around those negative attrition rates. Often, we feel that happens because students don’t feel connected to their academic or social systems, so we’re doing a lot of work around student perception of belonging, how much support they have – both socially within their university and also academically.

“Are they getting support for all of their academic goals, as well as can they find their peer group and the people they can connect to and will support them through the degree.”

In addition to university-run initiatives, Marshall highlighted that female engineering students have also taken it upon themselves to develop a “grassroots initiative” to support their peers through the Women in Engineering Society, or WieSoc for short.

“It’s run by students, the students manage their own program, select their own president and committee, and they’re just really active. They have nearly 3,000 members … which is a huge membership because students don’t automatically get put into society; they have to sign-up. The work they do to try and support all the female engineering students is really outstanding.

“They have something called the protege program where they partner senior students and industry partners with students who are coming into engineering to provide them mentoring, and to help them think about what their professional goal might be.

“They also had a program called develop me where they ran workshops around professional skills people might need.”

Marshall cautioned that without such diversity gender initiatives in place “we could end up with engineering solutions that don’t properly capture what all the proper consequences will be”.

Related Coverage

• Australia gets a national guide to help assess effectiveness of STEM initiatives
• Australia’s Women in STEM Ambassador says the country’s efforts to diversify is glacial
• Three women in tech keeping the gender conversation going
• Australian businesses lead in AI deployment but bias challenges still exist: Genpact

There will be a total of 500 seats in the 15th National Assembly at both central and local levels, according to a new resolution adopted by the National Assembly Standing Committee.

Minister promises greatest efforts to ensure safety in COVID-19 vaccinations

The Ministry of Health will mobilise all resources to carry out COVID-19 vaccinations, the largest-ever vaccination programme, so as to ensure absolute safety for people, Minister Nguyen Thanh Long has said.

Long chaired a teleconference which was organised on March 6 and connected with 700 places across Vietnam to launch the vaccination plan and provide related training for medical workers nationwide in the use and storage of the vaccine, as well as the treatment of post-injection complications.

He informed the teleconference that the vaccination programme will start on March 8, although the first batch of vaccine arrived in Vietnam on February 24.

“As the vaccine is new, we need to carry out thoroughly,” Long said, adding that Vietnam has to obtain an accreditation certificate from the producer and reassess the safety index of the batch of vaccine.

Because of the limited number of vaccine, the ministry cannot allocate for all 63 provinces and cities, but for 13 pandemic-hit localities, with priority given to Hai Duong province – Vietnam’s largest outbreak at present, he added.

The minister asked localities which have yet to receive the vaccine to prepare and make training programmes as the ministry will allocate vaccines to them when more are transported to Vietnam in March.

COVAC and AstraZeneca have agreed to provide 30 million doses each for Vietnam this year, the minister said, adding the ministry asked the producers to hand over the vaccines to Vietnam before September and is negotiating with Pfizer to buy an additional 30 million doses from this producer.

The ministry has assigned three deputy ministers to be responsible for directing the vaccinations as this kind of vaccine is injected for the first time and injected for adults.

Vietnam will conduct screening check-ups before infections to ensure safety, although the process takes more time. The first injections, he went on, will be given to people working on the front line of the fight against COVID-19, including health, army, police, customs and immigration personnel.

People getting the shots will be monitored via digital health records and receive e-certificates for their completion of inoculation./.

FPT Telecom to screen Russian animated films in Vietnam

Russian animation studio Soyuzmultfilm on March 5 said it has sealed a deal with a Vietnamese partner – FPT Telecom – on licensing the screening of its five new animated series in Vietnam.

The deal is the first of its kind between the two sides.

Accordingly, the series, namely The Secrets of Honey Hills, The Adventures of Peter and Wolf, Prostokvashino, Mr Theo, Cat & Dog, Captain Kraken and his Crew, and Pirates’ School, will be broadcasted in the Vietnamese language via FPT’s television services.

FPT Telecom is a subsidiary of FPT Corporation, one of the biggest telecommunications service providers in Vietnam./.

HCM City has 900 medical workers to get first COVID-19 vaccine shots

Ho Chi Minh City’s Department of Health announced on March 6 that 900 staff members of the municipal Hospital for Tropical Diseases will be the first in the southern region to be injected with AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine on March 8.

The selected medical personnel are those directly contacting with, treating, or caring for people classified as risky sources of COVID-19 transmission.

The hospital is chosen as it performs inoculations for people against communicable diseases on a daily basis, thus having experienced human resources for the work. Meanwhile, since the beginning of pandemic, the hospital has been a core establishment for treating severe cases and sent staff to support other COVID-19 treatment facilities in the city and the central region.

On March 5, the municipal Department of Health submitted to the Ministry of Health’s General Department of Preventive Medicine a list of the southern economic hub’s nine prioritised groups for the first COVID-19 vaccinations.

Vaccinations using the recently imported AstraZeneca vaccine is expected to begin in Vietnam on March 8, according to the Ministry of Health./.

Campaign “For Women’s Smiles” launched

The Vietnam Women’s Union, the Institute for Development & Community Health (LIGHT), and the UN Women in Vietnam jointly organised an virtual programme to celebrate the International Women’s Day (March 8) and launch the campaign “For Women’s Smiles” in Hanoi, central Thua Thien-Hue province, and Ho Chi Minh City on March 6.

The campaign “For Women’s Smiles” aims to honour unyielding efforts of Vietnamese women to overcome difficulties and challenges, especially amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, to contribute to the nation’s development and prosperity.

With the companionship of scientists, artists and social activists, it hopes to encourage the aspirations to rise up, the will to overcome difficulties, the desire to learn and the creativity of women.

The campaign also creates a space for women to expand the use of information technology, exchange information towards women’s happiness and promote gender equality./.

Facebook launches #SheForVietnam programme to empower Vietnamese women

Facebook will launch #SheForVietnam – a programme for Vietnamese women who are creating miracles every day on social networks on March 6 in efforts to affirm its commitment to supporting Vietnamese women in the digital era.

#SheForVietnam is designed to connect and inspire women’s communities, encourage and empower them to dream big and live life to the fullest.

The programme’s first pillar – #SheInspires is an online roundtable to honour and inspire women that stand up to help others and spread positive energy. There will be some popular faces in the event, those represent millions of other Vietnamese women creating magic every day thanks to the power of social networks: singer Thủy Tiên, Miss Universe Vietnam H’Hen Niê, actress Sam, social activist Chung Vũ Thanh Uyên – Mina Chung, CEO of Ru9 Company Limited Đặng Thùy Trang, Founder – CEO of the Women’s Initiative for Startups and Entrepreneurship (WISE) Từ Thu Hiền and Nam Nguyễn, Entertainment Partnership Lead, Vietnam, Facebook.

“In Việt Nam, women contributed 62 per cent of the total amount fundraised on Facebook in 2020. We have seen the positive impact that women have been able to create in their communities by sharing their voices across our platform, which becomes our motivation to continue our commitment to support women in Việt Nam. We hope #SheForVietnam can empower Vietnamese women to pursue their dreams and improve their life’s value, making more impact for the community,” said Nam Nguyen, Entertainment Partnership Lead, Vietnam, Facebook.

Hosted by Actress Sam, the event will unveil stories about how those successful women leverage the power of a social network to inspire people, especially the women’s community. The live roundtable #SheInspires will take place at 20:00 on March 6, 2021 on Facebook app Vietnam and Yeah1’s page system as well as a series of other popular pages from Đất Việt, Điền Quân, MCV, YAN, Multimedia, Orion Media, BHD, Unimedia, BH Media and POPs.

“I am very honoured to be a part of Facebook’s #SheInspires programme. Through this talk show, I had a chance to listen to the stories of women who could be both successful entrepreneurs and loving housewives, and an opportunity to bring my own stories to inspire women all over Việt Nam. I believe that if all of us join hands together with the support of social networks, our efforts will help spread women’s voices to the community,” said H’Hen Niê.

Women’s development and gender equality have always been Facebook’s top priorities for the past few years. In Việt Nam, Facebook has implemented many initiatives to support women in economic development, especially #SheMeansBusiness programme. This year celebrates the 5th anniversary of this programme, with more than 20,700 businesswomen in more than 50 cities trained through the programme’s online and offline workshops. #SheMeansBusiness has helped equip aspiring and established women entrepreneurs with the knowledge, skills, connections and technology required to build and grow businesses in the digital age.

Master plans built to promote efficient use of marine space, resources

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment hosted an online conference on March 4 discussing the building of a national marine space plan and a master plan on the exploitation and sustainable use of coastal resources in 2021-2030 and vision to 2045.

According to General Director of the Vietnam Administration of Seas and Islands (VASI) Ta Dinh Thi, the multidisciplinary plans are being developed under an integrated and ecosystem-based approach, serving the orientation and establishment of plans for using marine space and resolving inadequacies in marine use, thereby balancing economic development, national defence and security, and marine ecosystem protection.

The master plans are prepared on the basis of integrating national master plans relating to the sea, with adjustments made to address conflicting and overlapping issues in the maritime space. They cover coastal areas, islands, archipelagos, territorial waters, and airspace under Vietnam’s sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction.

The national marine space plan aims to ensure the efficient exploitation and sustainable use of marine resources and islands on the basis of a harmonious combination of socio-economic development and environmental protection, defence and security, and foreign affairs and international cooperation in coastal areas, islands, archipelagos, territorial waters, and airspace under Vietnam’s sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction.

Meanwhile, the master plan on the exploitation and sustainable use of coastal resources in 2021-2030 with a vision to 2045 covers coastal waters to an outer boundary of about 6 nautical miles from the coast and the coastal areas of communes, wards, and towns in 28 coastal provinces and centrally-run cities. However, to ensure the integrity of important ecosystems and habitats, and to pay due attention to strong interaction between the mainland and seas, the reach of the coastal space in some areas may be extended further towards both the mainland and the sea.

This plan aims at the overall goal of managing, exploiting, and efficiently using natural resources, serving sustainable socio-economic development, climate change adaptation, and the safeguarding of national defence and security along the coast.

Addressing the conference, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Le Minh Ngan spoke highly of VASI’s efforts in preparing these master plans.

The plans cover a number of new issues to be mentioned for the first time, he stressed, and so require the coordination of relevant ministries, sectors, and localities.

He also emphasised the importance of selecting consultation units and consulting ministries, sectors, localities, and experts and scientists on these plans./.

French artist to host exhibition at Vin Gallery

French artist Frederic Dialynas Sanchez will show his work at an art exhibition titled “La Mémoire Dans la Peau” (The Memory in the Skin) at Vin Gallery on March 12.

The exhibition will showcase his new works reflecting his personal journey to explore Vietnamese heritage, and the people’s memories and life decades after war.

Sanchez, 38, graduated from the Lyon National School Fine Arts. He has worked in Asia and Europe.

He hosted his first solo exhibition in Hà Nội in 2006. He has participated in numerous exhibitions in France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, the US, China and Japan.

The exhibition will close on April 29. The gallery is at 11 Street 55 in District 2.

Ba Ria-Vung Tau looking to have all communes recognised as new-style rural areas

The southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau has set a goal of having all of its communes recognised as new-style rural areas this year.

Under the National Target Programme on New Rural Development 2021, the province will pool together over 4.48 trillion VND (194 million USD), more than 1.47 trillion VND of which will come from the State budget, over 1.75 trillion VND from credit sources, more than 450.4 billion VND from businesses, and the remainder from the public.

Six more communes are expected to meet the criteria for new rural development, bringing the total to 45, or 100 percent.

The province will also strive to see that Phu My township, Chau Duc district and also Xuyen Moc district meet the criteria.

All 45 of its communes have recorded a rate of poor households below 0.09 percent and an employment rate of above 90 percent. They have also met the criteria in terms of clean water supply, culture, and education.

Localities have focused on high-tech agricultural production in tandem with food safety, and a number of linkage models between farmers, cooperatives, and enterprises have proven effective.

Ba Ria-Vung Tau has also targeted becoming a new-style rural province by 2025, with Long Dien and Dat Do districts together with 35 of its 45 communes achieving the enhanced criteria for such a status and 14 communes being recognised as model new-style rural areas./.

Tien Giang stepping up administrative reform to foster socio-economic development

The Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang is making efforts to speed up administrative reform, which has so far proven effective in boosting its socio-economic development.

The comment was made at an online conference reviewing the intensification of administrative reform and the application of information technology (IT) in Tien Giang’s State offices during 2020, which was chaired by Vice Secretary of the provincial Party Committee and Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Nguyen Van Vinh on March 4.

According to assessments from the committee, administrative reform has been carried out effectively by all local departments and sectors, and administrative discipline gradually put in order.

The province has focused on building e-government and posted positive results.

2020 was the fourth year Tien Giang implemented the “Application of information technology in State offices” emulation movement. All local offices have used software to receive and handle documents, and applied the province’s “single window” software to receive, handle, and return documents.

Vinh asked leaders of units and localities to continue stepping up administrative reform and IT application at State offices, as such reform is a key task set out in the resolution from the provincial Party Committee’s 11th Congress.

To make activities effective, heads of offices and units should raise their sense of responsibility and improve workplace culture to create a civilised environment, he stressed./.

Saigon Outcast to host Mediterranean food fest

The outdoor bar Saigon Outcast will host the first Mediterranean Food Festival in HCM City on March 27.

The festival will offer a wide range of Mediterranean and Middle East food such as falafel (chickpea fritter), lamb, baba ganoush (roasted eggplant dip), kebabs and more.

The event will include a live band, belly dancers, games, local vendors, kid’s zone, climbing, and skate bowl.

The festival will take place from 12pm – 11pm at 188/1 Nguyễn Văn Hưởng Street in District 2. Admission fee is VNĐ30,000.

Mekong Delta intensifies measures to prevent forest fires

Authorities in the Mekong Delta have stepped up measures to prevent forest fires as the region enters the peak dry season.

Earlier, at the beginning of the ongoing dry season, provinces took various measures to protect forests like dredging canals to store more water and mobilising human resources and facilities to monitor fires.

They undertook advocacy activities to raise public awareness of forest protection and prevention of fires.

In Cà Mau Provinice, the provincial People’s Committee is ordering relevant departments and agencies to have in place sufficient personnel and facilities to promptly discover fires and extinguish them.

The province has 110,000ha of forests, including 66,539ha of saltwater mangrove forests, 43,195ha of brackish – water mangrove forests (U Minh Hạ forests) and 716ha on islands.

The U Minh Hạ forests and those on islands usually face a high fire risk in the dry season, according to the province’s Forest Protection Sub-department.

Rangers are thus tightening checks to prevent the illegal entry of people to harvest honey and poach since their activities can cause forest fires.

Some 8,500ha of forests in the U Minh Hạ National Park face fire risk level 1.

Huỳnh Minh Nguyên, director of the park, said a part of the forests would face risk level 2 in the next two weeks.

After Tết (the Lunar New Year), which fell on February 12 this year, canals in the park have been dredged to store water for firefighting, he said.

“The national park has sufficient human resources to monitor forests to promptly cope with fires.”

In the 8,535ha U Minh Thượng National Park in Kiên Giang Province’s U Minh Thượng District, 1,115ha face a severe threat of fire.

Trần Văn Thắng, its deputy director, said the park has built a digital map showing water resources, transport and access to areas that face fire risk.

Some 1.4 million cubic metres of water have been pumped into key areas and high ground for firefighting.

The park has cleared obstacles from 72km of canals and 25 roads in high-risk forests to improve access.

It has set up four groups with 6 – 10 people each to monitor high-risk areas around the clock.

It has strengthened advocacy activities to raise awareness among people living close to forests about protection and fire prevention.

In Hậu Giang Province’s Phụng Hiệp District, Lung Ngọc Hoàng Nature Reserve has upgraded sluices and dams, dredged canals and mobilised personnel to fight possible fires in 2,805ha of forests.

Lư Xuân Hội, director of the reserve, said cameras have been installed in three watch towers for monitoring fires.

The reserve is working closely with other relevant agencies at the provincial and district levels to monitor forests. It has had no fires in the last 18 years.

In An Giang Province, mountainous districts like Tri Tôn and Thoại Sơn have taken measures to mitigate the risk of fires.

Tri Tôn has more than 8,400ha of forests of which, 4,406ha, including 2,550ha in mountainous areas, face a severe threat of fire, according to relevant authorities.

The district has stepped up propaganda about forest protection regulations and the monitoring of forests and the task of preventing fires.

People managing forest have created fire breaks in forests, set up watch towers and stored water for firefighting.

The delta has 347,000ha of forests, mostly mangrove and cajuput.

Ao Dai – Vietnamese cultural heritage

Every country in the world has traditional outfits that contain its unique cultural essence. In Vietnam, though there are no official documents indicating that the ao dai (traditional long dress) is the national outfit, in the minds of many, especially international friends, it is considered a symbol of Vietnamese culture.

It is also because of her love for the ao dai that designer Minh Hanh devoted all of her fashion career to honouring the traditional dress. Promoting, introducing, and acting as general director of ao dai festivals, Hanh also considers it is her responsibility, together with researchers and other designers, to make the ao dai an intangible cultural heritage of humanity.

Miss Vietnam 2010 Ngoc Han also identified her role in preserving and promoting national culture when choosing to research and design an ao dai for her career development. As a young designer, Ngoc Han puts her soul into her ao dai, using traditional natural materials and contributing to a woman’s beauty.

Vietnamese women do not need to spend much time putting on an ao dai to show off their charm and elegance. The ao dai has found a place in the daily lives of Vietnamese women, becoming part of the country’s spirit and identity./.

Art exhibition inspired from poems by late poet Đặng Đình Hưng

Painter Lê Thiết Cương will open his newest exhibition on March 12 at L’Espace, 24 Tràng Tiền Street.

Entitled Một Bến Lạ (An Unknown River) after the poetry collection by late poet Đặng Đình Hưng, the exhibition will present Cương’s work made from 2007 to the present inspired by the poems.

More than 30 artworks created on different materials such as pastel on poonah paper, oil on canvas and pottery will be on display.

Earlier, in January, the launch of the poetry collection An Unknown River was hosted by the French Cultural Centre (L’Espace) to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the death of the poet (1924-1990) who was central to the country’s poetry development. The book comprises six poems, as well as 20 small paintings and writings, about the poet and his poems by poets and researchers Hoàng Cầm, Hoàng Hưng and Đỗ Lai Thúy.

The exhibition will open to the public from 6pm, March 12 until April 4.

Localities ordered to work harder on child education, protection

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) has issued a document on implementing child care, education and protection in 2021, requesting localities to raise responsibilities and take more comprehensive and drastic measures to protect children.

The document states that 2021 is the first year of implementing the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress and many socio-economic development plans in various fields, including the national action programme for children for 2021 – 2030.

The MoLISA asked the People’s Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities to build, promulgate, and organise the implementation of resolutions, programmes, schemes and plans of all sectors and localities, aiming to well perform the child care, education and protection in line with the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress; the Law on Children; resolutions, directives and decisions of the National Assembly (NA) and the Government; and programmes and projects on children in the 2021 – 2025 period, with a vision to 2030.

Accordingly, Party committees and local authorities at all levels were ordered to raise awareness and responsibility, especially of heads, in directing, managing and implementing the Party’s guidelines, and the State’s policies and laws on children’s rights; solving issues related to children, child right violations; and preventing and minimising children’s vulnerability to risks of harm and injury.

Localities need to ensure State management on children, human resources for the work, and allocate local budgets for implementing targets and solutions of the national action programme for children for 2021 – 2030, and local programmes and plans for children.

The People’s Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities were asked to focus on improving and developing child protection service systems, maintaining and expanding models of child protection and care, regularly supervising the implementation of laws, policies, programmes, schemes and plans on children, developing database on children, collecting information and statistics on children, and connecting child database with relevant data systems.

Attention will be paid to promoting interdisciplinary coordination in implementing the child work, and solutions to ensure safe living environment, prevent child sexual abuse, exploitation and violence, and injury accidents, especially drowning.

New playground set up in Đong Anh Town

A playground for children will open in Đông Anh Town today with support of the European Union and the British Council (BC).

The project, Sân Chơi Nỏ Thần, or Magic CrossBow Playground, is implemented by the BC and the Việt Nam National Institute of Culture and Arts Studies.

The playground is built 5km from the ancient Cổ Loa Citadel with the magic crossbow legend that has been woven into the history of Vietnamese people.

“Ruins, history, legends of kings and his men, prince and princess, trust and betrayal, the rich history of Đông Anh is the source of  limitless inspiration,” said artist Trần Nguyễn Ưu Đàm who came up with the project’s artistic concept.

“We play to live a richer and more fulfilled life. The combination of those two ideas is the realisation of this Magic CrossBow playground.

“Life is a big playground where we are constantly moving in and out of history, living with, playing in, hiding and seeking in those ruins and myths,” said the artist.

The image of a giant Magic CrossBow in four parts scattered around like a ruin reflects the reality of Cổ Loa Citadel, parts hidden and parts visible at different places in the area.

When climbing in and out of the Magic Crossbow, the creators hope the history of the Âu Lạc Kingdom and its lessons will be kept alive.

This playground was created with the collaboration of Think Playgrounds Social Enterprise, artist Ưu Đàm,  the Đông Anh Women’s Union and the community of Neighbourhood 3 in Đông Anh Town.

During the design and construction process, local residents contributed their ideas.

They have also contributed financial resources and will manage the playground going forward.

Think Playgrounds builds playgrounds, community gardens and improving public spaces that are friendly and safe with communities throughout Việt Nam.

Since 2014, Think Playgrounds has built nearly 200 public playgrounds and community gardens and organised more than 30 campaign events to raise awareness of the community about the role of play for the comprehensive development of children.

HCMC preparing for construction of Metro Line 2: Ben Thanh – Tham Luong

Metro Line 2 (Ben Thanh – Tham Luong) is one of the longest, with the length of 48km. The first phase, which is 11.2km long is to answer the traveling needs of residents in HCMC from the downtown to the Northwest area and vice versa. It is also the foundation for other similar modern urban railways built in the future.

Head of Division No.2 in the Management Authority for Urban Railways (MAUR) Le Van khoa reported that premise clearance for Metro Line 2 construction project has reached over 75 percent, with nearly 100 percent of legal procedure completed.

The districts of Tan Phu, 10, and 12 basically finish their premise clearance task, while the People’s Committee of districts 1, 3, and Tan Binh keep mobilizing related residents to clear the site for this important project.

In 2021, MAUR is going to prepare necessary building facilities for the project and reestablish residential infrastructure (water supply, sewage system, electric grid, green space, street lighting, traffic signs) for the public needs.

At the moment, MAUR is promoting the bidding process for construction and monitoring packages in the period of 2021-2022, followed by the building of the main parts in the project from 2022. In particular, the two packages of CP3a and CP3b (tunnels and underground stations) are to be started then.

From 2023-2024, the design, digging and construction of station walls will be kicked off, with the priority for Station 7 at Bay Hien Intersection and Station 10 on Pham Van Bach Street. Premises will be cleared to have sufficient space to site 4 Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs). These machines will be used from 2024 to dig from Station 7 to Station 1 (Ben Thanh) and Station 5 (Le Thi Rieng).

From 2025-2026, work will be done to complete all underground stations. Simultaneously, the digging and foundation treatment at Tham Luong Depot will be carried out, along with the construction of the transition structure from the underground to elevated section, the viaduct, elevated Station 11 (Tan Binh), the infrastructure at Tham Luong Depot.

The detailed design of the electromechanical items in the system like cars, signal information, 110kV power stations, depot devices, and the control center will be introduced in 2026 as well, followed by a technical test at the end of that year.

For the project to smoothly launch, MAUR is working with sponsors to use the technical support capital by Asian Development Bank (ADB) to hire professional consultants for the bidding of CS2B package since the Credit Institute for Reconstruction (or Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau – KFW) is not able to prepare this amount.

At present, MAUR is discussing with IC Consultation certain conditions before formally negotiating the main content of the Appendix for Contract No.13.

At the same time, after receiving instruction from the Ministry of Construction about applying transition regulations in updating the package’s estimated cost, MAUR requested the appraisal board to adjust corresponding guidelines to become the foundation for next steps.

MAUR also suggested the HCMC Department of Planning and Investment should help HCMC People’s Committee to prepare the response to the Ministry of Planning and Investment about the status of using capital from KFW, ADB, and European Investment Bank (EIB); and to ask for an extension of loans from KFW.

The HCMC Department of Finance stated that there is no ground for HCMC People’s Committee to allocate the state regular disposable budget to MAUR in order to hire legal consultation for urban railway projects.

Therefore, MAUR asked that HCMC People’s Committee at least allow MAUR to hire legal consultation service for contract negotiation and management regarding construction packages of Metro Line 2, with fee taken from the reciprocal capital of the project.

The design appraisal and approval procedure will be delivered soon by the HCMC Department of Construction.

HCMC continues running pilot project in solving administrative cases online

Ho Chi Minh City will continue running the pilot project of online dialogues in solving administrative cases.

Additionally, the municipal People’s Committee directed related agencies and departments, the chairman of Thu Duc City and local administrations in coordination with people’s courts at two levels to implement the project effectively.

Before, the Supreme People’s Court in HCMC in September approved the pilot project of people’s courts at two levels from January 1, 2021 till January 1, 2022.

The municipal People’s Committee also assigned the Department of Information and Communications in cooperation with the Department of Justice, police force and related competent agencies to research on the regulations of administrative judiciary and the Law on Cybersecurity proposing punishments on those participating in litigation relating to recording and filming to post on social network and media.

Hanoi to cleanse polluted rivers

Hanoi authorities will flush the polluted To Lich and Nhue rivers with the water from the Red River in an attempt to improve the water quality.

On March 4, Hoang Cao Thang, deputy head of the Department of Construction confirmed at a meeting that they were planning to flush the To Lich and Nhue rivers.

“The water will be taken from the Red River. We’ll set up eight pump stations for this,” he said.

According to Thang, the project is in accordance with the city’s urban planning and there is no need to build a separate plan for this. This will be added to the sewage plan for the area on the left bank of Nhue River.

Also at the meeting, Colonel Pham Duc Thang, deputy head of the environmental police force in Hanoi said Hanoi Party Committee Secretary Vuong Dinh Hue had directed them to open an investigation into rubbish collecting and treatment violations after public concerns were raised. They have tightened monitoring over the rubbish collecting, transporting and treatment at Nam Son and Xuan Son dumping sites.

“The investigation is still on-going. We’ll make a public announcement if there is any result,” he said.

Ethnic-minority students benefit from STEM education

Lùng Thị Hoài, a Nùng ethnic minority student of Nàn Sán Secondary School, uses equipment to show off electric fireworks she and her peers made to celebrate the 2021 STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) festival in Si Ma Cai District, the northern mountainous province of Lào Cai.

STEM is an approach to learning and development that integrates science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Students are expected to develop their skills through STEM education including problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, curiosity, decision making and acceptance of failure.

Hundreds of students in the district have benefited from STEM education.

This was the first year the STEM festival had been held in the district – one of the poorest districts of the country after the provincial Department of Education and Training Department issued a document to instruct the implementation of STEM education in secondary schools in September 2020.

Nguyễn Thị Kiều Oanh, head of the district’s Education and Training Office, said officials of the department had visited many localities to plan the festival.

The festival was not only a chance for the students to show off the electric firework device but also run toy cars on race tracks using kinetic energy, Khoa học và Phát Triển (Science and Development) online newspaper reported.

Also at the festival, the office invited two students in Lý Tự Trọng Secondary School in the province’s Lào Cai City to operate a robot, programmed by them, Oanh said.

The two students won the first prize in the robotics competition in the north, held by the Central Youth Union in November 2020, she added.

Oanh said the office wanted students in Nàn Sán Secondary School to do more in the next festivals, such as programming robots like the students in Lý Tự Trọng Secondary School in Lào Cai City did.

To do that, the office plans to hold a training course for programming robots for both teachers and students in a total of eight schools in the district this month, she said.

The training course will be organised with the support of teachers in Lào Cai City and the STEM Alliance, she said.

Established in 2015, the STEM Alliance – an organisation dedicated to connecting volunteers participating in STEM promotion activities – has trained some 10,000 general teachers about STEM education and helped establish more than 500 STEM clubs across the country, especially in rural areas.

The alliance also plays an important role in organising six National STEM Festivals and five Open Math Festivals.

The district administration issued Project No 04- DA/HU on July 31, 2020, on improving the quality of education and training for 2020-25. The project aims to promote STEM education at all schools in the district.

The move came under the goal of STEM universal education of the provincial education sector.

Over the past five years, the provincial education sector has conducted many STEM education training programmes for thousands of teachers.

The education sector has also set up STEM advisory groups for all levels of the education sector to build a formal system of STEM education.

To do that, the provincial education sector has received support from experienced STEM educators such as Đặng Văn Sơn of Hà Nội National University, Hoàng Vân Đông of Electricity University, Dương Tuấn Hưng of Việt Nam Academy of Science and Technology, Lê Chí Ngọc and Hàn Huy Dũng of Hà Nội University of Technology.

Children group helps keep Danang clean

A group of children in Danang City are collecting scrap metal as a way to protect the environment.

The children in the environment club often gather together on Sundays. Their leader is Pham Cong Luong, born in 1956, party secretary of Binh Phuoc 1 Residential Area.

According to Luong, he has always been concerned about environmental problems where he was living and tried to set an example by collecting rubbish on the street when he did morning exercises or when he was going out. Then in 2018, a rubbish collecting movement was initiated by Luong to raise funds for the children and poor families in Binh Phuoc. It received a positive response from the locals.

The children rubbish collecting club was set up in early 2019. The club includes several children age between 6 to 12 who want to raise awareness about environmental protection and raise funds for disadvantaged families. As of now, the club has a total of 34 members and many contributors.

“We have to teach the children because they will be the pioneers who lead others,” Luong said.

Ever since the club was set up, the local families have been actively classified their rubbish and placed them in front of their house for the children to collect. The rubbish was brought to the gathering location and classified again by volunteers.

9-year-old Cao Hoang Phuc Thinh said, “I think our club is meaningful and help make our area cleaner so I felt good to come there every weekend.”

12-year-old Le Anh Thu said, “It’s not just the weekends, now, whenever I saw litter on the street, I’ll always pick it up and put it in the bin.”

The club has earned nearly VND100m (USD4,300) up until now. The money was used as rewards for children with good academic results and to organise sports events for the children. After Covid-19 broke out, the club sent 290kg of rice to 29 disadvantaged cases. They also used the money to buy gifts for disabled and orphan children on Tet Holiday and other special occasions.

Royal sisters movie gets release date after pandemic delay

The fifth edition in a series of chick-flick movies will be released in cinemas nationwide next week, after being delayed due to the COVID-19 resurgence earlier this year.

Gái Già Lắm Chiêu V – Những Cuộc Đời Vương Giả (Camellia Sisters – Living Like Royalty) will premiere on March 12, a month after the original date of February 12, the first lunar day of the Year of the Ox.

With the pandemic controlled in much of Viet Nam, the producer MAR6 Pictures feels ready to release the movie in cinemas safely.

“Changing the film release date was a difficult decision because it disturbed the original plan, but we want to keep the audience safe and decide to delay until the viewers can safely go to the theatre to enjoy the movie,” said director Bảo Nhân.

Gái Già Lắm Chiêu V – Những Cuộc Đời Vương Giả is the fifth edition of the chick-flick series called Gái Già Lắm Chiêu (The Tricky Ladies) that was launched in 2016 by young directors Bảo Nhân and Nam Cito.

The third edition on the relationship between a woman and her mother-in-law, played by Lê Khanh and Lan Ngọc, recorded revenue of VND165 billion (US$7 million) and is one of the top 10 highest-grossing Vietnamese films of all time.

The fifth edition features late actor Hoàng Dũng in the role of wealthy Vĩnh Nghị. The film was the last he took part in before dying on February 14 from blood cancer.

Director Bảo Nhân said during the filming period, Dũng endured pain to complete the scenes. His first segment in the film was on Thiên An Hill, requiring Hoàng Dũng to ride a bicycle for many hours at night. After the filming was done, he gasped due to exhaustion.

The main filming location was a white tea garden within an ancient villa and cost more than VND2 billion ($87,000) to set up the European-style garden.

The movie was also filmed in many famous destinations in Huế in an effort to promote the beauty of local culture, tourism as well as the history of the city.

Lan Ngọc, the main actress of the previous editions, will make a come back in the fifth edition. Photo Facebook Gái Già Lắm Chiêu

Camellia Sisters – Living Like Royalty focuses on the three Lý sisters belonging to the Huế aristocracy. Three famous actresses, Lê Khanh, Hồng Vân and Kaity Nguyễn, play the three sisters.

People’s Artist Lê Khanh plays Lý Lệ Hà – the scheming eldest sister in the family with a long history of collecting antiques. To look different from her role as the mother-in-law Thái Tuyết Mai in the third edition, she cut her long hair that she had grown for more than 20 years.

People’s Artist Hồng Vân, as the second eldest sister Lý Lệ Hồng is talkative, seemingly carefree but knows a lot of family secrets. She also starred in the third edition.

Kaity Nguyễn, after the big success of Tiệc Trăng Máu (Blood Moon Party) is the youngest sister, Lý Linh.

With such a lineup of big names on the silver screen, the movie is anticipated to be a bit hit and possibly surpass the success of the third edition.

Argentinean press updated on Vietnam’s political situation, socio-economic affairs

The Vietnamese Embassy in Argentina on March 5 held a meeting with local press agencies to inform them about Vietnam’s political situation and socio-economic development as well as culture and tourism potential.

Among media outlets attended the event were major and mainstream press agencies like TV Publica, national news agency Telam, and newspapers Clarin, Ambito Internacional, Resumen Latinoamericano, Acercando Naciones and IP Noticias.

Participating reporters were given an insight into Vietnam’s recent affairs, particularly the country’s successful containment of the COVID-19 pandemic and the outstanding outcomes of the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam which outlined the country’s development goals and orientations for the coming time.

Reporters said they were impressed by the country’s encouraging progress in recent years and hope to further contribute to the enhancement of the Vietnam-Argentina comprehensive cooperation in the future.

The event also featured a presentation on Vietnam’s tourism potential and a screening of video clips on its economic outlook this year./.

Book on 70-year Vietnam-Russia relations debuts

A book featuring 70-year Vietnam-Russia relations compiled by Vietnamese Ambassador to Russia Ngo Duc Manh was publicly introduced at a ceremony held by the embassy in Moscow on March 5.

Attending the ceremony were representatives of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Federation Council, State Duma, administrations of Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and other localities, as well as local scholars, people and Vietnamese expatriates.

Speaking at the event, Manh said the book is a gift of gratitude for leaders, people, and readers of the two countries, which, he said, shared a traditional friendship of closeness, trust, mutual understanding and support during the war time and in the current national construction cause.

Consisting of five parts, the book gives an overview of the Vietnam-Russia ties and introduces late Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh’s activities in Russia, who set the foundation for the bilateral relations.

It features more than 700 images and documents classified into diplomatic events and cooperation activities in politics, economy, defence-security, culture, education, science, and people-to-people diplomacy.

In the book’s introduction, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affair Pham Binh Minh wrote today’s Vietnam-Russia relations have inherited from the Vietnam-Soviet Union relationship with the precious assets of sincere affection, and mutual support and assistance, forging a strong and loyal friendship between the two nations. Russia was the first country that Vietnam established a strategic partnership in 2001 and a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2012.

Chairwoman of the Russian Federation Council V. Matviyenko stated the friendship, formed when Vietnam was fighting to safeguard its independence years ago, have been fortified over the past years and become a common asset of both nations./.

Source: VNA/VNS/VOV/VIR/SGT/Nhan Dan/Hanoitimes

‘A three generation US-Pakistan relationship is not likely to be snapped any time soon. All this presents an irritant to an India that wishes to concentrate on economic development,’ says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).

F ormer US ambassador to India Frank Wisner made a very pithy observation while addressing graduating students at Mayo College that India’s educated class tends to see politics as a ‘spectator sport’! The same analogy holds true for foreign relations as well and a dose of realism is well worth an effort.

Ever since the end of the Cold War in 1992, it was expected that relations between the two ‘estranged democracies’, the United States and India, would improve and the two nations would be partners, if not allies.

Despite a near quarter century since, relations are yet to take off. Structural, historical and political reasons have led to this situation.

T he US is a global power and has interests in all regions of the world while India, a regional power, is interested in its immediate neighbourhood of South, West and South-East Asia.

As a part of its global role the US has divided the world into regions. In its definition of Central Asia and the Asia-Pacific region, the boundary between the two runs along the India-Pakistan border.

This American arrangement has split the strategic unity of the Indian subcontinent and many of the India-US woes could be directly attributed to this as the US departments and military commands (Centcom and Pacific Command) enjoy substantial autonomy in decision making and have institutional momentum.

To be fair, the US has consistently tried to alter geography by getting Pakistan to be part of West Asia. The starkest example of this attempt is the desert palm trees planted at great cost in sub-Himalayan Islamabad. On the Indian side, the foreign service is so tiny (smaller than the city state of Singapore) that it is often unable to focus on more than one issue/country at a time.

A s if the structural factors were not enough, India-US relations carry a huge millstone of historical baggage. During the Cold War, India was firmly put in the Soviet camp. Post the Cold War as well, the desire to reward old allies and punish Soviet clients dominated.

The US support to secessionists in Kashmir in the 1990s (separatists agitators often shouted slogans of ‘Bill Clinton Zindabad’ as a token of this) and the attempt to ‘outsource’ the Indian sub-continent to China for strategic management were its manifestations.

Even if one can forget history as part of US global politics, the lasting damage done during the Ronald Reagan era when the US helped Pakistan go nuclear continues to plague the sub-continent. Even the radicalisation of Islam that was used as a tool in the Afghan war against the Soviet Union had its spill over into India. That the US and Europe are now victims of the same demon is cold comfort to India.

Many analysts, including I, were of the view that in the emerging China-US confrontation and the post 9/11 world, there was convergence of US and Indian interests. One must admit that this was a rather premature conclusion. The US-China dynamics has not followed the Cold War script and the relationship is more competitive than confrontational.

Neither has India signed on the dotted lines to needlessly confront China. On the terrorism front, double standards continue to operate.

T he murky background of the Islamic State episode shows that the West in general and the US in particular are still not got over their predilection for ‘using’ radical Islam for geo-political objectives.

On the other hand there is inadequate appreciation of the fact that India, home to the second largest Muslim population in the world, had to face the music due to the spillover effect.

An additional irritant in the relations is the American bolstering of Pakistani conventional war capabilities under the guise of fighting terrorism. It has not reached the ludicrous stage of the Afghan war era when the Reagan administration supplied Harpoon anti-ship missiles to Pakistan in a confrontation in a landlocked country.

The charitable explanation is that US bought the Pakistani argument that it faces an ‘India threat’ and that a conventionally strong Pakistan is less likely to use its nukes.

Both these arguments lack military logic, but a three generation US-Pakistan relationship is not likely to be snapped any time soon. All this presents an irritant to an India that wishes to concentrate on economic development.

The story of irritants is not one sided. The US is equally unhappy with Indian support to Russia on the merger of Crimea and the continuing defence collaboration between the old friends. India’s steadfast sympathy to Iran is equally bothersome for the US that sees no good in Iran.

The final straw for the US commercial interests was when India chose the French Rafale fighter aircraft over the US offer and the new nuclear reactor sale still eludes American companies while Russia and France have made gains.

N one of the above factors and issues are going to be resolved in a short time frame. India has a great opportunity to exercise its ‘soft power’ to begin a new partnership with the US.

The politically and economically significant Indian Diaspora can play a major role in putting the relationship on a sound footing. In close elections in the US, opinions of Indian-origin Americans begin to count.

Political scientist Samuel Huntington once remarked how Bollywood continues to churn out more films than Hollywood. Indian cultural resilience has to be seen in the context of the decline or near demise of the film industry in Europe. Indian philosophy, yoga and medicine continue to make inroads into mainstream American society.

Luckily for us, we have a government in India that is not shy of connecting with people of Indian origin or promoting Indian culture since the vocal minority seems to have lost its veto over these issues.

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Image: Prime Minister Narendra Modi hugs US President Barack Obama as Michelle Obama, in a Bibhu Mohapatra dress, greets other members of the welcoming party at the India Air Force’s Palam air base, January 25, 2014.

Colonel Anil A Athale (retd) is a military historian and coordinator of the Pune-based Initiative for Peace and Disarmament.