President Luong Cuong and UN Secretary-General António Guterres pose for a photo with heads of delegations attending the opening ceremony of the Hanoi Convention. (Photo: VNA)

This was the Committee’s first session since the Convention was opened for signature in Hanoi last October. During the meeting, the Committee focused on discussing the draft Rules of Procedure of the Conference of the States Parties to the Hanoi Convention, to ensure the Convention can be implemented effectively once it enters into force.

Vu Le Thai Hoang, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the United Nations and other international organizations in Vienna (Austria), led an inter-agency Vietnamese delegation comprising representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Public Security, and made substantive contributions to the Committee’s discussions.

Addressing the meeting, Ambassador Vu Le Thai Hoang affirmed that Vietnam consistently upholds the spirit of cooperation and consensus throughout the process of developing and implementing the Convention. He stressed that a clear, robust and consensus-based set of operating rules would provide an essential foundation to ensure that the Conference of the States Parties operates in an effective, transparent and credible manner once the Convention takes effect.

The ambassador called on delegations to engage in discussions in a constructive and flexible spirit in order to facilitate the early adoption of the Rules of Procedure, thereby laying a solid basis for the Convention’s implementation in the period ahead.

At the same time, Vietnam urged countries that have not yet signed or ratified the Convention to complete the necessary procedures as soon as possible, enabling the Convention to enter into force promptly and bring practical benefits to the international community in combating cybercrime.

Hoang said Vietnam is actively finalizing domestic procedures and has committed to ratifying the Convention at an early date.