Circular 10/2026/TT-BNG guiding on issues within the competence of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under Decree 289/2025/ND-CP

CIRCULAR

Guiding a number of issues falling within the competence of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs according to the Government’s Decree No. 289/2025/ND-CP guiding the implementation of the National Assembly’s Resolution No. 197/2025/QH15 of May 17, 2025, on a number of special mechanisms and policies to create breakthroughs in lawmaking and law enforcement activities^[1]

Pursuant to the National Assembly’s Resolution No. 197/2025/QH15 of May 17, 2025, on a number of special mechanisms and policies to create breakthroughs in lawmaking and law enforcement activities;

Pursuant to the Government’s Decree No. 289/2025/ND-CP guiding the implementation of the National Assembly’s Resolution No. 197/2025/QH15 of May 17, 2025, on a number of special mechanisms and policies to create breakthroughs in lawmaking and law enforcement activities;

Pursuant to the Government’s Decree No. 28/2025/ND-CP defining the functions, tasks, powers and organisational structure of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is amended and supplemented by Decree No. 109/2025/ND-CP;

At the proposal of the Department of International Law and Treaties;

The Minister of Foreign Affairs promulgates the Circular guiding a number of issues falling within the competence of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs according to the Government’s Decree No. 289/2025/ND-CP guiding the implementation of the National Assembly’s Resolution No. 197/2025/QH15 of May 17, 2025, on a number of special mechanisms and policies to create breakthroughs in lawmaking and law enforcement activities.

Article 1. Scope of regulation

This Circular guides the implementation of a number of issues falling within the competence of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs according to the Government’s Decree No. 289/2025/ND-CP guiding the implementation of the National Assembly’s Resolution No. 197/2025/QH15 of May 17, 2025, on a number of special mechanisms and policies to create breakthroughs in lawmaking and law enforcement activities (below referred to as Resolution No. 197/2025/QH15 and Decree No. 289/2025/NĐ-CP), including:

1. The List of tasks, activities and presumptive expenditure norms applicable to tasks and activities concerning the formulation of circulars to be promulgated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and joint circulars to be drafted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

2. The List of tasks, activities and presumptive expenditure norms applicable to treaty-related work, including tasks and activities concerning the formulation of treaties proposed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and tasks and activities concerning the examination of treaties by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

3. The competence to decide on expenditure items and adjustments to expenditure items for the formulation of legal documents and the formulation and examination of treaties at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

4. The competence to decide on criteria for identifying experts and consultancy organisations engaged in tasks and activities concerning the formulation of legal documents and the formulation and examination of treaties at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

5. The estimation, management, use, payment and account-finalisation of funds for the formulation of legal documents and the formulation and examination of treaties at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Article 2. Scope of application

1. Agencies and units under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that perform tasks and implement activities concerning the formulation of legal documents and the formulation and examination of treaties as assigned by the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

2. Agencies, units, organisations and individuals involved in the estimation, management, use and account-finalisation of state budget funds for tasks and activities concerning the formulation of legal documents and the formulation and examination of treaties.

3. Other agencies, organisations and individuals involved in the performance of the tasks and implementation of the activities specified in Clauses 1 and 2 of this Article.

Article 3. List of tasks and activities and presumptive expenditure norms applicable to tasks or activities concerning the formulation of circulars to be promulgated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and joint circulars to be drafted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The List of tasks and activities and presumptive expenditure norms applicable to tasks and activities concerning the formulation of circulars to be promulgated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and joint circulars to be drafted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is provided in Appendix I to this Circular.

Article 4. List of tasks and activities and presumptive expenditure norms applicable to tasks and activities concerning the formulation of treaties proposed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and tasks and activities concerning the examination of treaties by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

1. The List of tasks and activities and presumptive expenditure norms applicable to tasks and activities concerning the formulation of treaties proposed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is provided in Appendix II to this Circular.

 2. Presumptive expenditure norms applicable to tasks and activities concerning the examination of treaties by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs must comply with the presumptive expenditure norms and the presumptive expenditure norm brackets provided in Appendix II to Decree No. 289/2025/ND-CP.

Article 5. Competence to decide on expenditure items and adjustments to expenditure items for the formulation of legal documents and the formulation and examination of treaties at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

1. Heads of units assigned by the Minister of Foreign Affairs to directly perform tasks concerning the formulation of legal documents and the formulation and examination of treaties shall decide on expenditure items and adjustments to expenditure items for each task or activity, ensuring that the expenditure items are appropriate to the importance and complexity of these tasks and activities and fully meet practical needs arising during the performance of tasks and implementation of activities.

2. In case of adjusting the expenditure items for a task or an activity, it is required to ensure that the total expenditure does not exceed the total expenditure for the task or activity provided in Appendix II to Resolution No. 197/2025/QH15, and the maximum level of the expenditure norm bracket for the corresponding task or activity provided in the Appendix to Decree No. 289/2025/ND-CP and the Appendices to this Circular; the adjustment must comply with the regulations on supervision, examination and auditing, and ensure democracy, publicity and transparency.

Article 6. Competence to decide on criteria for identifying experts and consultancy organisations in the formulation of legal documents and the formulation and examination of treaties at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Unless otherwise provided by relevant laws, heads of units assigned to assume the prime responsibility for formulating legal documents or formulating or examining treaties shall decide on the criteria for identifying experts and consultancy organisations.

Article 7. Estimation, management, use, payment and account-finalisation of funds for the formulation of legal documents and the formulation and examination of treaties

1. Based on the annual programmes and working plans on legal affairs and treaty-related working plans of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and documents of competent authorities or persons on the assignment, approval, postponement, withdrawal, removal or addition of tasks and activities to/from these programmes and plans, the budget-using units directly performing the tasks and implementing the activities according to the presumptive expenditure norms applicable to the corresponding tasks and activities specified in Articles 3 and 4 and the Appendix to this Circular (below referred to as budget-using units) shall formulate funding estimates and submit them to the tier-I budget-estimating unit for inclusion in the annual state budget estimates of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in accordance with the law on the state budget and other relevant laws.

2. Based on the state budget estimates assigned by a competent authority, the tier-I budget-estimating unit shall allocate and assign estimates to budget-using units in accordance with the law on the state budget, ensuring conformity with the assigned tasks, implementation schedule and fund-balancing capacity.

3. The payment and account-finalisation of funds for the performance of tasks and implementation of activities concerning the formulation of legal documents and the formulation and examination of treaties must comply with Decree No. 289/2025/ND-CP, the law on the state budget, the accounting law and other relevant laws:

a/ Dossiers for payment and account-finalisation of funds for the formulation of legal documents and the formulation and examination of treaties must comply with Clauses 3 and 4, Article 7 of Decree No. 289/2025/ND-CP, in which, the products of each task or activity concerning the formulation of circulars to be promulgated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and joint circulars to be drafted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs must comply with the List of products provided in Appendix I to this Circular; the products of each task or activity concerning the formulation of treaties proposed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs must comply with the List of products provided in Appendix II to this Circular; and the products of each task or activity concerning the examination of treaties by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs must comply with Appendix II to Decree No. 289/2025/ND-CP.

b/ Units directly performing the tasks or implementing the activities specified in Articles 3 and 4 of and the Appendix to this Circular shall make, complete and provide sufficient dossiers as specified in Point a of this Clause and submit these dossiers to their directly managing budget-using units for use as a basis for payment and account-finalisation of funds.

c/ Budget-using units shall check the completeness of the dossiers specified in Point a of this Clause and carry out the payment and account-finalisation of funds in accordance with the law on the state budget, the accounting law and other relevant laws.

Article 8. Organisation of implementation

1. Funds for the performance of tasks and implementation of activities concerning the formulation of legal documents and the formulation and examination of treaties regulated by this Circular shall be allocated, managed, used and account-finalised on the basis of the annual working plans on legal affairs and treaty-related working plans of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

2. The Department of International Law and Treaties shall give advice on, and submit to the Minister of Foreign Affairs for promulgation, the annual working plans on legal affairs and treaty-related working plans of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to serve the formulation, allocation, adjustment and supplementation of state budget estimates for the formulation of legal documents and the formulation and examination of treaties in accordance with the law on the state budget.

3. The Department of Administration and Finance shall guide budget-estimating units under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in formulating state budget estimates for tasks and activities concerning the formulation of legal documents and the formulation and examination of treaties at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Based on the provisions of Resolution No. 197/2025/QH15, Decree No. 289/2025/ND-CP, this Circular and the dossiers for formulation of funding estimates for the performance of tasks and implementation of activities of budget-estimating units under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Administration and Finance shall summarise and report to a competent authority for the sufficient and timely allocation of state budget estimates to units for the performance of tasks and implementation of activities concerning the formulation of legal documents and the formulation and examination of treaties.

4. Heads of units assigned to directly perform tasks and implement activities concerning the formulation of legal documents and the formulation and examination of treaties according to the presumptive expenditure norms applicable to each task or activity specified in Articles 3 and 4 of and the Appendix to this Circular shall:

a/ Organise the formulation of funding estimates for the performance of tasks under regulations and submit them to the budget-using units for summarisation under Article 7 of this Circular;

In case the responsibility to take the main charge of tasks concerning the formulation of legal documents or the formulation or examination of treaties is assigned to any of the units specified in No. 1 thru No. 19 in Article 3 of the Government’s Decree No. 28/2025/ND-CP defining the functions, tasks, powers and organisational structure of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is amended and supplemented by Decree No. 109/2025/ND-CP (below referred to as the Ministry’s office division), the head of the unit in charge of a task or an activity shall organise the formulation of funding estimates for its own unit and related units within the Ministry’s office division that directly perform such task or activity, and submit them to the budget-using unit for summarisation and reporting to the competent authority under regulations.

b/ Organise the performance of tasks so as to ensure compliance with the objectives, contents, scope of work, implementation schedule and output quality requirements within the funding estimates and presumptive expenditure norms approved by competent authorities; and be accountable at the request of competent agencies or persons.

c/ Make full payment in a public and transparent manner to related units, organisations and individuals provided in the Appendix to this Circular under regulations.

d/ Proactively decide on the hiring of experts and consultancy organisations to participate in the performance of tasks and implementation of activities. The estimation, management, use, payment and account-finalisation of funds for hiring experts and consultancy organisations must comply with the law on the state budget and other relevant laws.

5. Budget-using units, units directly performing tasks or implementing activities, and related organisations and individuals shall organise the implementation, management and use of funds for the proper objectives within the assigned tasks, ensuring economical use, efficiency, publicity, transparency, and compliance with the law on the state budget, the accounting law and other relevant laws.

Article 9. Effect

1. This Circular takes effect on July 17, 2026.

2. Tasks and activities concerning the formulation of legal documents and the formulation and examination of treaties performed/implemented on or after January 1, 2026, shall be paid and account-finalised according to the presumptive expenditure norms specified in Resolution No. 197/2025/QH15, Decree No. 289/2025/ND-CP and this Circular.

3. In case the legal documents referred to in this Circular are amended, supplemented or replaced, the amending, supplementing or replacing documents shall apply.

4. Agencies, units, organisations and individuals involved in the estimation, management, use and account-finalisation of state budget funds for tasks and activities concerning the formulation of legal documents to be promulgated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the formulation of treaties proposed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the examination of treaties by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs shall implement this Circular.

5. Any difficulties arising in the course of implementation of this Circular should be promptly reported to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for study and handling.-

For the Minister of Foreign Affairs
Deputy Minister

LE ANH TUAN

* The Appendices to this Circular are not translated.