Vietnam’s Top Leader Nguyen Phu Passes Away, PM Modi Extends Condolences

Nguyen Phu Trong, general secretary of Vietnam's ruling Communist Party and the country's most powerful politician, has died following months of ill health, official media said on Friday.

He was 80. “General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party Nguyen Phu Trong passed away at 13:38 on July 19, 2024, at the 108 Central Military Hospital due to old age and serious illness,” the Nhan Dan newspaper said.

PM Modi has extended his condolences. He wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter) that he was “saddened by the news of the passing away of the Vietnamese leader, General Secretary H.E. Nguyen Phu Trong”. 

“We pay our respects to the departed leader. Extend our deepest condolences and stand in solidarity with the people and leadership of Vietnam in this hour of grief,” he added. 

Trong had dominated Vietnamese politics since 2011, when he was elected party chief.

During his tenure, he worked to consolidate the Communist Party's power in Vietnam's single-party political system. In the decade before he took the top role in Vietnamese politics, the balance of power had shifted more toward the governmental wing led by then-Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. 

(With agency inputs).