Vietnam attends 215th session of UNESCO Executive Board

This represents the second annual meeting of the year of the Executive Board, with a specific focus summarising activities and budgetary spending in the first half of implementing the Program and Budget for the 2022 to 2023 period in different areas of expertise, including education, culture, science, information and communication, global priorities, and UNESCO priority groups.

Speaking at the plenary session, Le Thi Thu Hang, head of the Vietnamese Delegation and assistant to the Foreign Minister, shared her assessment of the current global situation. She emphasised the importance, role, and positive contributions of UNESCO in responding to and solving global problems, with the most recent successful organisation of the UN Summit on Educational Transformation in New York and the Global Conference on Cultural Policy and Sustainable Development held in Mexico in September.

Hang affirmed that the country always actively participates in implementing UNESCO's activities in areas of competence, as evidenced by the fact that the nation successfully organised the 50th anniversary of implementation of the Convention for the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage in Ninh Binh. This was done as part of efforts to join with the international community to deliver messages on policies of both conservation and sustainable socio-economic development.

Furthermore, the country also attended the international conference on science, ethics, and human development in Binh Dinh in response to the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development.

Moving forward, the nation will hold a global conference on volcanoes at Dak Nong Global Geopark from November 24 to November 26, to mark the 20th anniversary of the implementation of the 2003 Convention for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage in  2023.

As part of this occasion, Audrey Azoulay, head of the Vietnamese Delegation, met with Xing Qu, director-general of UNESCO, and Edouard Firmin Matoko, assistant director-general in charge of external affairs, to discuss boosting co-operation to secure the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Vietnam and UNESCO for the 2021 to 2025 period. This includes taking measures to further deepen cooperative ties moving forward.

UNESCO leaders highly appreciate Vietnamese contributions over recent times, thanking the country for competently organising the first official visit of Azouley, especially for the attention of Vietnamese senior leaders given to UNESCO co-operation, as well as the visit.

The two sides therefore agreed to implement specific and effective activities in Vietnam, as well as promoting UNESCO's initiatives and Vietnamese proposals with the goal of taking bilateral relations to new heights.

As part of the occasion, the head of the Vietnamese delegation held a sideline meeting with Tamarac Rastovac, chair of the Executive Board, and a number of heads of delegations from other countries in order to discuss bilateral ties, issues of mutual concern, as well as co-ordination in realising the agenda of the meeting.