He was elected by Parliament and replaces To Lam, who took over as Party Secretary (the most important in Hanoi) after the death of Phu Trong. The objective is to guarantee political and institutional stability in a country marked by an anti-corruption campaign that has (also) masked an internal struggle for power. In his inaugural speech he promised to strengthen defense and an independent and multilateral foreign policy.
Hanoi () – The Hanoi parliament today elected General Luong Cuong as the new president of Vietnam, with a widely anticipated decision whose objective is to guarantee a minimum of stability in the political and institutional life of the country after a period of turbulence and change. This is a critical period related above all to the anti-corruption campaign, behind which power struggles are taking place that have led to the dismissal or resignation of prominent figures in the politics and institutions of the Southeast Asian nation, starting even with the president. .
The senior army officer, 67, replaces To Lam, who in August was appointed general secretary of the Communist Party, the highest position in the single-party communist state, replacing Nguyen Phu Trong, who died two weeks earlier. Analysts and experts point out that Lam is the one who emerged “victorious from the chain of purges of an ‘anti-corruption campaign’ that did not spare even the leaders of Hanoi.”
Cuong – who met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on October 11 – was elected with the vote of the 440 deputies who participated in today’s parliamentary session. In his inaugural speech he committed to strengthening defense capabilities and continuing with an independent and multilateral foreign policy. He then promised to “strengthen national security and build a well-trained, agile and modern revolutionary army.”
Vietnam has long been trying to diversify its arsenal of predominantly Russian-made weapons, but in recent years it has not registered any significant agreements with other leading countries on the international scene. Before the elections, the new president held a key position in the Communist Party secretariat, making him the fifth highest official in the country after the party head, the president, the prime minister and the speaker of Parliament. Cuong is also a member of the Politburo, the party’s highest decision-making body.
The president has few direct powers and plays a largely ceremonial role, representing the nation at high-level meetings with foreign dignitaries, although he remains one of the nation’s four main high-level political officials. In his brief tenure as president, his predecessor Lam met with the presidents of China, Russia and the United States, among others. In Vietnam, the party chief has become the most powerful figure as the late Nguyen Phu Trong expanded his powers throughout his 13 years in office. The decision of Lam, a former police chief, to resign from the presidency, according to analysts and experts, should be linked to the attempt to reach a compromise on the distribution of power within the party.
Foreign multinationals, which have invested heavily in the country for export-oriented production, had always praised political stability and were caught off guard by internal turbulence at the top in the wake of the fight against corruption. The battle did not spare even the main figures and forced two state presidents and a parliament speaker to resign in the 17 months before Lam’s election. The new power-sharing agreement will last until 2026, when all senior positions will be put up for discussion again as part of the usual five-year reshuffle of political leadership.
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