Vietnam’s top leader receiving medical treatment: state media
President To Lam will take over duties of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, media reports.
Vietnam’s top leader, Nguyen Phu Trong, is receiving treatment for an unspecified medical condition and has stepped back from official duties as general secretary of the Communist Party, state media reported on Thursday.
President To Lam has been assigned to take over his duties overseeing the work of the Party Central Committee, the Politburo, and the Secretariat, online news site VietnamPlus said.
“The Politburo, the Secretariat, key leaders and the Standing Member of the Secretariat have directed specialized agencies to focus on mobilizing a team of professors, doctors, medical staff, leading experts and the most favorable conditions to treat and care for the general secretary's health,” it said.
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Speculation about the 80-year-old Trong’s health on social media was sparked at the end of last year when he disappeared from the public eye after meeting Japanese Communist Party head Kazuo Shii in Hanoi on Dec. 26.
The following month, he failed to meet Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone and then-Indonesian President Joko Widodo on their official visits to Vietnam.
A brief appearance at the start of an extraordinary session of the National Assembly on Jan. 15 failed to assuage rumors of ill health.
Since then, there has been a major shakeup of the upper echelons of Vietnam’s Communist Party.
Vo Van Thuong resigned as president in March and Vuong Dinh Hue stepped down as chairman of the National Assembly in May.
On May 20, Tran Thanh Man took office as National Assembly chairman with parliament swearing-in former Public Security chief To Lam as state president two days later.
Trong, who also served as president from October 2018 to April 2021, was chosen to serve a rule-breaking third five-year term as party secretary in 2021.
His term will expire in 2026 when the Communist Party’s 14th National Congress is expected to take place. The party secretary is supposed to recommend a successor who then needs to be approved by the Central Committee.
Lam, 67, and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, 65, are the only two candidates eligible to succeed him.
Edited by RFA Staff
