The Vietnam government said that the leader of Communist Party, Nguyen Phu Trong, is dead.
He died at the age of 80.
The statement from the 108 Central Military Hospitals in Hanoi on Friday stated that Trong died due to old age and serious illness.
The head of Vietnam’s single-party political system, Trong, had helmed the Communist Party since 2011.
Rumours about his deteriorating health had been swirling for days, and he had rarely been seen in public this year since suffering a health scare in January.
He last appeared in public on June 20 as he held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a state visit to Vietnam.
His reign as general secretary was the longest since Le Duan took control following the death of leader Ho Chi Minh in 1969, making him one of Vietnam’s most powerful politicians.
During his second and third terms in office, Trong presided over a “blazing furnace” corruption crackdown that saw numerous high-ranking officials handed lengthy jail terms.
Also, it resulted to the dismissal of former presidents Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Vo Van Thuong, and National Assembly chair Vuong Dinh Hue.
Trong first joined the Communist Party in 1968 before working as a journalist for the Communist Review.
Following a long career within the party apparatus, he began a five-year stint as chairman of the National Assembly in 2006.
Vietnam is officially led by four “pillars”: the general secretary, the president, the prime minister and the chairman of the National Assembly.
In the early 1980s, Trong completed a Ph.D on party building at the Soviet Academy of Social Sciences in Moscow.
Trong, a Leninist ideologue, earned a reputation as a modest and respectful figure and remains popular across Vietnam.
On Thursday, the party announced that Trong needed to focus on medical treatment and that President To Lam would take over his party duties.
Trong has suffered several strokes since 2019.
