Hanoi (VNA) – To promote cultural diplomacy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs(MoFA) has proactively coordinated with international organisations, especiallythe United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO),said Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son.

He madethe remark while responding to a legislator’s question about cultural diplomacyat a question-and-answer session on March 18 that was part of the 31st meeting of the NA Standing Committee.

Son notedthat cultural diplomacy has helped Vietnam not only introduce its land and people tothe international community but also acquire cultural quintessence of the worldvia cultural exchanges.

In thatspirit, the MoFA has proactively coordinated with international organisations,especially UNESCO. Among the seven most mechanisms of UNESCO, Vietnam has been electedto five, including the World Heritage Committee, helping the country enhancecultural cooperation with international friends, he emphasised.

At thenational level, the minister said, cultural diplomacy has helped make animpression of Vietnam’s friendliness. Recent externalactivities of senior leaders have also been highlighted with cultural diplomaticevents.

Localitiesnationwide have also paid attention to building and popularising their imagesthrough festivals, receiving high evaluation from international friends, hesaid.

With regard to heritagepreservation and promotion, Son said cultural heritage and the UNESCO-recognisedprojects are not only precious assets that clearly reflect the country’s culturalidentity but also hold global values. Therefore, promoting images of these heritagesaims to bring into play the soft power, raise the country’s stature in the internationalarena, and more importantly, contribute to socio-economic development.

The MoFA will propose policies to practically and effectively strengthen Vietnam’s cooperation with UNESCO and also askUNESCO to give guidance, he noted.

Talking about the MoFA’sefforts, the minister elaborated that ithas provided localities with information about things that need to be done topreserve and bring into play those heritages to serve sustainablesocioeconomic development. It has also invited many leaders of UNESCO to visitVietnam and worked with relevant parties to hold this organisation’s firstmeeting on cultural heritage preservation and promotion.

Besides, the MoFA hasassisted localities to compile dossiers seeking UNESCO’s recognition of moreheritages, and continued to introduce the country’s heritages to internationalfriends as has been thus custom thus far, according to the minister./.