Vietnam has been active member of the United Nations since the country became a full member of the organisation on September 20, 1977.

As the country’s economy has grown so too has its contribution to the world’s most important multi-lateral forum.

At the UN Millennium Summit in 2000, President Tran Duc Luong, on behalf of the Vietnamese Government, signed the UN Millennium Declaration, committing to completing eight Millennium Development Goals ahead of the deadline of 2015.

High level leaders of Vietnam and the UN have been meeting each other more regularly. Most recently, UN General Secretary Kofi Annan visited Vietnam in May 2006 and President Nguyen Minh Triet paid a visit to the UN headquarters in June 2007.

During his meeting with President Nguyen Minh Triet at the UN Headquarters in New York in June 2007, UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon said Vietnam’s effective implementation of the UN Millennium Declaration provided a good example for other countries to follow. He also appreciated the results of the “One UN” initiative, which is being conducted as a pilot programme in Vietnam with the aim of unifying UN representative agencies under one roof.

Vietnam continues to play a more proactive role in UN activities in the fields of security and disarmament, as well as in the discussion of major items on the UN agenda such as socio-economic development, population and environmental protection. The country has also become more involved in activities in relations to the Non-Aligned Movement and the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) at the U N.

Vietnam was elected as Deputy President of the UN National Assembly in 1997, 2000 and 2003 and as President of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)’s General Assembly in the 33rd term.

Over the past years, Vietnam also joined the management boards of several UN agencies, namely the Economic and Social Council, the Human Rights Committee, the Governing Councils of the UN Development Programme, the UN Population Fund and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and the Management Council of the Universal Postal Union.

Vietnam became a full member of the UN Chemical Weapon Convention (CWC) in 1998, signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty in 1996 and ratified the treaty in 2006. The country joined the Conference on Disarmament (CD) on June 17, 1996 and is preparing to sign the supplementary protocol to IAEA Nuclear Agreement.

Regarding development co-operation, Vietnam and UN agencies focused on implementing three major targets that were set by the UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF), which called for the building of economic policies for an equal, integrated and sustainable development process the improvement of the quality of social and welfare services and equal access to these services. The targets also included the writing of policies, laws and national management mechanisms, which effectively facilitate national development towards the UN Millennium Goals.

Vietnam’s candidacy for a non-permanent seat in the UN Security Council in the 2008-09 term has received wide support from many UN members, and in particular Asian countries. (VNA)