Regulations to Know about Hoisting Foreign Flags during Local Receptions

Circular 05 has set out general regulations on flying foreign flags when welcoming foreign guests at localities, specifically:

- Only fly the national flag of a foreign country; the United Nations flag or the flag of an intergovernmental international organization or inter-parliamentary organization when flown together with the Vietnamese national flag.- Only fly the national flag of a foreign country when that country has established official diplomatic relations with Vietnam.- For visits of local high-level foreign leaders, only fly the visiting local flag when flown together with the Vietnamese national flag and the visiting country's national flag.- The Vietnamese national flag should be on the right, and the visiting country's national flag or the United Nations flag, or the flag of an intergovernmental international organization or inter-parliamentary organization should be on the left when viewed from the outside in or from the bottom up.- In the case where the visiting locality has a local flag and requests to fly it, the flags should be flown in the following order: the Vietnamese national flag in the middle, the visiting country's flag on the left, and the visiting local flag on the right when viewed from the outside in or from the bottom up.- In reception rooms where there is a statue or a portrait of President Ho Chi Minh, flags should be flown in the following order: the statue or portrait of President Ho Chi Minh in the middle, on the right is the Vietnamese national flag, on the left successively from the middle out are the visiting country's national flag and then the visiting local flag when viewed from the bottom up.

See detailed content at Circular 05/2017/TT-BNV which comes into effect from December 1, 2017.

- Thanh Lam -

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