Second plenary meeting for the official verification of the draft Law on Countering the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction

Colonel General Le Tan Toi, Member of the Party Central Committee and Chairman of the Committee for National Defence, Security and Foreign Affairs, chairs and moderates the Meeting

Overview of the Meeting

Attending the Meeting on behalf of the agency drafting the Law were Colonel General Nguyen Van Gau, Member of the Party Central Committee and Deputy Minister of National Defence, together with leaders of the relevant departments.

On behalf of the verifying agency were Vu Hai Ha, Member of the Party Central Committee and Standing Vice Chairman of the Committee for National Defence, Security and Foreign Affairs; members of the Standing Board of the Committee for National Defence, Security and Foreign Affairs; full-time National Assembly deputies working at the Committee for National Defence, Security and Foreign Affairs; representatives of the Committees of the National Assembly; and representatives of the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Justice and other relevant ministries and sectors.

 Colonel General Le Tan Toi, Chairman of the Committee for National Defence, Security and Foreign Affairs, delivers the opening remarks at the Meeting

In his opening remarks, Le Tan Toi, Chairman of the Committee for National Defence, Security and Foreign Affairs, emphasised the necessity of promulgating the Law on Countering the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction in the current context. In preparation for its submission to the National Assembly for consideration and decision at the First Extraordinary Session of the 16th National Assembly, he called on the delegates, in a spirit of urgency and responsibility, to give detailed comments on the content of the Report of the Ministry of National Defence so that the Standing Board of the Committee for National Defence, Security and Foreign Affairs could finalise the Verification Report.

Colonel General Le Tan Toi, Chairman of the Committee for National Defence, Security and Foreign Affairs, delivers the opening remarks at the Meeting

Promulgating the Law on Countering the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction is an urgent requirement to institutionalise the Party's guidelines and policies on safeguarding the Fatherland early and from afar

Presenting the summary Report on the draft Law on Countering the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, Deputy Minister of National Defence Nguyen Van Gau stated that the research, development and promulgation of the Law is an urgent requirement in order to institutionalise the Party's guidelines and policies on safeguarding the Fatherland early and from afar; ensure national defence and security; develop science and technology and innovation; proactively and actively integrate internationally; perfect the Vietnamese socialist rule-of-law State; and build a synchronous and consistent legal system in response to the need to prevent and control traditional and non-traditional security threats in the new situation; while ensuring that Vietnam fulfils its national commitments and obligations on countering the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in implementing the international treaties to which Vietnam is a party.

Colonel General Nguyen Van Gau, Deputy Minister of National Defence, presents the Report

On the structure and basic content of the draft Law, Deputy Minister of National Defence Nguyen Van Gau stated that the draft Law consists of 04 chapters and 37 articles; its content has been developed by institutionalising the 03 policies approved by the Government; carrying over the still-appropriate provisions of current legislation; remedying shortcomings in countering the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; and adding new provisions to meet the requirements of implementing international treaties, United Nations Security Council resolutions and relevant international standards. The content of the draft Law has also been reviewed and designed to ensure consistency and coherence with legislation on national defence, security, counter-terrorism, anti-money laundering, chemicals, atomic energy, foreign trade management, customs, science and technology, as well as other relevant specialised areas of law.

Colonel General Nguyen Van Gau, Member of the Party Central Committee and Deputy Minister of National Defence, presents the Report

The Vice Chairmen of the Committee for National Defence, Security and Foreign Affairs attend the Meeting

According to Deputy Minister of National Defence Nguyen Van Gau, the draft Law clearly sets out a mechanism to protect the lawful rights and interests of agencies, organisations and individuals in the application of measures to counter the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; it does not impose duplicate administrative procedures on lawful research, investment, production, business, export, import and transactions, nor does it establish parallel mechanisms for licensing, declaration, reporting, inspection, examination or supervision under this Law.

Full-time National Assembly deputies working at the Committee for National Defence, Security and Foreign Affairs

In finalising the draft Law dossier, the representative of the agency leading the drafting stated that it had seriously studied, taken on board and fully explained the opinions of the relevant ministries, sectors, agencies and organisations, the appraisal opinions of the Ministry of Justice, the opinions of Government members and the directions of the Government, as well as the Conclusions of the National Assembly Standing Committee and the preliminary verification opinions of the Committee for National Defence, Security and Foreign Affairs on the draft Law. On that basis, the draft Law has been reviewed and revised in terms of content, legislative drafting technique and the consistency of the legal system, ensuring that its provisions are rigorous and feasible and do not give rise to new administrative procedures or compliance costs for individuals, organisations and enterprises, while meeting the requirements of state management and fully implementing Vietnam's international obligations on countering the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Recommendation to supplement and refine provisions on activities involving technology, data, services and transactions with foreign elements

Presenting the Verification Report on the Report of the Ministry of National Defence, Trinh Xuan An, Committee member and full-time National Assembly deputy at the Committee for National Defence, Security and Foreign Affairs, stated that the Committee agreed on the necessity of promulgating the Law on the political, legal and practical grounds set out in the Report. The Law is being developed to promptly institutionalise the Party's policy on safeguarding the Fatherland early and from afar; perfect the legal basis for countering the proliferation and proliferation financing of weapons of mass destruction (WMD); meet practical requirements; and implement the international treaties to which Vietnam is a party and the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council.

Trinh Xuan An, Committee member and full-time National Assembly deputy at the Committee for National Defence, Security and Foreign Affairs, presents the Verification Report

On the general provisions, the Standing Board of the Committee basically endorsed the general provisions in Chapter I, and recommended further refining the scope, the interpretation of terms, the principles for countering the proliferation of WMD, the principles for the application of law and the prohibited acts, so that they are clear and consistent with specialised legislation and the relevant international treaties; and clarifying a number of new concepts such as “end user”, “end use”, “de facto controlling party”, “dual-use goods and technologies” and “beneficial owner”... in order to facilitate the application of the law.

Members of the Committee for National Defence, Security and Foreign Affairs attend the Meeting

On the criteria for the national risk assessment of WMD proliferation (Article 11), the Standing Board of the Committee found that developing criteria under this approach is consistent with international practice and the principles of risk management, reflecting a comprehensive approach to risk identification and assessment; however, it recommended further study to supplement and refine this Article by specifying the assessment criteria in greater detail, adding appropriate quantitative indicators or assessment levels; clarifying the role of enterprises and economic actors in the group of vulnerability criteria; and clearly setting out the principles, methods, information sources and responsibilities of agencies in assessing and updating the national risk assessment criteria.

Trinh Xuan An, Committee member and full-time National Assembly deputy at the Committee for National Defence, Security and Foreign Affairs, presents the Verification Report

On the National Database on Countering the Proliferation of WMD (Article 29), the Standing Board of the Committee recommended that the agency leading the drafting continue reviewing the text to clarify the scope of the information and data to be collected and the responsibility of each relevant agency for updating, using, sharing and managing data. It also called for a design that builds on, connects to and makes maximum use of the national and specialised databases already invested in, limiting the creation of stand-alone data systems and avoiding duplication in investment, data collection and data management, in line with the policy of developing digital government, national digital data and digital transformation.

Delegates attending the Meeting

On State Management and Assurance of Implementation (Chapter III), the Standing Board of the Committee agreed with assigning the Government to exercise unified state management of countering the proliferation of WMD, and designating the Ministry of National Defence as the National Focal Point to ensure unified direction and inter-agency coordination and to implement Vietnam's international commitments. However, it recommended further clarifying the legal status, tasks, powers and inter-agency coordination mechanism of the Focal Point; clearly distinguishing its coordinating function from the specialised state management functions of ministries and sectors; and fully reviewing and assessing the resources, organisational structure, personnel, databases and other conditions for ensuring the implementation of the Law.

Delegates attending the Meeting

At the Meeting, the delegates expressed basic agreement with the scope and subjects of application of the draft Law. They also recommended further review to clearly define the boundary between the scope of this Law and that of specialised laws; to clarify the principles for the application of law where areas of management overlap; and to supplement and refine the provisions on activities involving technology, data, services and transactions with foreign elements…

Lieutenant General Tran Duc Thuan, Vice Chairman of the Committee for National Defence, Security and Foreign Affairs, moderates the discussion

Nguyen Truong Giang, Vice Chairman of the Committee for Law and Justice, speaks

Do Khac Huong, Committee member and full-time National Assembly deputy at the National Assembly's Committee for Petitions and Supervision, speaks

Hoang Van Nghia, Committee member and full-time National Assembly deputy at the Committee for Deputies' Affairs, speaks

Major General Nguyen Dinh Hien, Commander of the Chemical Corps, Ministry of National Defence, speaks

Concluding the Meeting on behalf of the Standing Board of the Committee for National Defence, Security and Foreign Affairs, Committee Chairman Le Tan Toi sincerely thanked the delegates for attending and contributing their opinions at the Meeting.

Le Tan Toi, Chairman of the Committee for National Defence, Security and Foreign Affairs, delivers the closing remarks at the 2nd Plenary Meeting

Committee Chairman Le Tan Toi stressed that the verifying agency would take on board the well-founded comments of the delegates, and requested the representatives of the Ministry of National Defence to fully take on board the opinions expressed and finalise the Report for submission to the competent authority as prescribed by law.