File photo of Vietnam President To Lam
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

Vietnam’s parliament will elect a new state president in October, a senior official of the National Assembly said on Monday (August 26, 2024) after parliament held an extraordinary meeting.

The current state president To Lam was appointed earlier in August as chief of the ruling Communist Party, the country’s most powerful job, two weeks after the death of long-serving general secretary Nguyen Phu Trong.

New Delhi:

Vietnam Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh reached New Delhi late on Tuesday evening for a three-day state visit which is expected to further strengthen the age-old ties between the two countries.

“Warm welcome to PM Phạm Minh Chinh of Vietnam as he arrives in New Delhi on a State Visit. India and Vietnam share civilisational links and a longstanding friendship based on mutual trust. The visit will further strengthen our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a post on X.

The Vietnamese PM is scheduled to participate in various programmes and business events on Wednesday. He will receive a ceremonial welcome at the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Thursday.

On the same day, Pham Minh Chinh will visit the Raj Ghat to pay tribute to Mahatma Gandhi and then hold bilateral discussions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will also host a luncheon in honour of the visiting delegation.

Chinh is also scheduled to call on President Droupadi Murmu and Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar during the course of his visit.

“India considers Vietnam as a key pillar of its Act East Policy and an important partner in its Indo-Pacific vision,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Tuesday.

India-Vietnam relations have been on the upswing since the establishment of a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Hanoi in 2016.

PM Modi has maintained Vietnam’s importance as an important pillar of India’s ‘Act East’ policy and the Indo-Pacific vision, while seeking to enhance the scope of the bilateral relationship – including defence partnership – besides working for expeditious progress on the existing initiatives.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, second left, shakes hands with Vietnamese officials upon his arrival at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi, on June 20, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Vietnam early on June 20 for talks with the country’s Communist leaders after concluding a defence pact with North Korea for his final stop on a two-nation tour of Asia.

Mr. Putin’s aircraft touched down at Hanoi’s international airport, where he was met on a red carpet by Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha, according to a Reuters witness.

In an opinion piece timed for his visit, Mr. Putin applauded the Southeast Asian Communist-ruled country for supporting “a pragmatic way to solve the crisis” in Ukraine, in comments published in Vietnam’s Communist Party newspaper.

Vietnam, which officially pursues a neutral foreign policy it calls “bamboo diplomacy” in its relations with world powers, has abstained from condemning Russia’s attack on Ukraine, a stance that Western countries view as too close to the Kremlin

The Southeast Asian country will be the third nation Mr. Putin has visited, after China and North Korea, since he was sworn in for a fifth term in May.

Vietnam has been gearing up for a full state welcome for Putin, his first visit since 2017 and his fifth in total.

As well as holding talks with Vietnam’s top leaders, Mr. Putin will attend wreath laying ceremonies including at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, housing the embalmed corpse of Vietnam’s founding leader.

Moscow:

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Vietnam on Thursday morning for a state visit set to deepen ties between Moscow and Hanoi, Russian news agencies reported.

Travelling from a closely followed trip to North Korea, Putin touched down in the southeast Asian country with a large delegation of senior Russian ministers and business figures.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to visit Vietnam on June 19 and 20, after repeated invitations from Vietnamese leaders.
| Photo Credit: AP

The United States criticised Vietnam for having invited Russia’s President Vladimir Putin to Hanoi, the U.S. embassy in Hanoi said ahead of an expected state visit this week.

Mr. Putin is expected to visit Vietnam on June 19 and 20, after repeated invitations from Vietnamese leaders.

The U.S. has led Western sanctions on Russia following its invasion of neighbouring Ukraine in February 2022. In March last year, the Hague-based International Criminal Court’s (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for the Russian president over alleged war crimes in Ukraine.

“No country should give Putin a platform to promote his war of aggression and otherwise allow him to normalize his atrocities,” a spokesperson for the U.S. embassy in Hanoi said when asked about the impact of the expected visit on ties with the United States.

“If he is able to travel freely, it could normalise Russia’s blatant violations of international law,” the spokesperson added, referring to the invasion that Russia describes as a “special operation”. The U.S. upgraded relations with Hanoi last year and is Vietnam’s top trading partner.

Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry did not reply to a request for comment. Mr. Putin’s visit has not yet been formally announced, but multiple officials have confirmed the trip, which would be his first to Vietnam since 2017. The two countries have historically close ties.

“We cannot return to business as usual or turn a blind eye to the clear violations of international law Russia has committed in Ukraine. There needs to be accountability for those responsible for war crimes,” the U.S. embassy spokesperson added. Neither Vietnam, Russia or the U.S. are members of the ICC.

Bangkok:

Vietnam’s rubber-stamp parliament voted in public security minister To Lam as the country’s new president on Wednesday, after a major anti-corruption campaign forced his predecessor to resign.

Thousands of people — including several senior government and business leaders  — have been caught up in the Southeast Asian country’s “blazing furnace” crackdown on graft, led by Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong.

Analysts have said that Lam, who is deputy head of the steering committee on anti-corruption, has weaponised its investigations to take down his political rivals.

In his first remarks as president, Lam said he was “determined to fight corruption and negative phenomena”.

Lam takes over from Vo Van Thuong, who resigned in March over what the party called “violations and shortcomings”, after just a year in the job. 

Led by the Communist Party general secretary, Vietnam has a four-person leadership structure that also includes the president, prime minister and head of the National Assembly.

The National Assembly chairman also resigned in April over “violations and shortcomings”, meaning two of the country’s top four positions had been vacant for a month. 

Lam, 66, has been public security minister since 2016 and has taken a hard line on human rights movements in the communist country.

It had appeared he was set to hold the presidency and his position at the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) concurrently, which would have been a first for Vietnam.

But hours before the secret ballot, parliamentarians agreed they would relieve him of the powerful role.

“The indecision on the MPS post shows that other elite members are hesitant to grant the MPS to any of To Lam’s proteges,” Nguyen Khac Giang, visiting fellow at the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, told AFP.

“And To Lam himself is reluctant to relinquish control over the main executioner of the anti-corruption campaign,” he said.

The National Assembly elects the president by secret ballot, with deputies then approving the results.

Lam carried 472 of 473 votes.

On Monday, Tran Thanh Man, 61 was nominated as the new head of the National Assembly, and the party has appointed four new politburo members.

Political upheaval is uncommon in Vietnam, and for years all changes were carefully managed with an emphasis on cautious stability.

In the past 18 months, Vietnam also saw the resignations of the deputy prime minister and the head of the party’s economic commission, while its once 18-strong parliament briefly fell to 12 members.

Former president Vo Van Thuong’s predecessor, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, also resigned during that window.

Steaks and noodle soup

Lam has spent his whole career within the secretive MPS, which deals with the monitoring of dissent and surveillance of activists in the authoritarian state.

Rights groups say the government has in recent years stepped up a crackdown on civil society groups.

Two hundred activists are currently in prison, according to Vietnam-focused human rights organisation The 88 Project.

Three years ago, he was at the centre of a scandal that sparked online anger in Vietnam when he was filmed eating steak smothered in gold leaf at a London restaurant — shortly after laying a wreath at the grave of Karl Marx.

The restaurant, Nusr-Et Steakhouse, named after Turkish chef Nusret Gokce — known to his nearly 40 million Instagram followers as Salt Bae — serves up steaks wrapped in edible 24-carat gold leaf, reportedly costing more than $1,000.

The average person in Vietnam earns a few dollars a day.

Months later, Vietnam jailed a noodle seller who had posted a parody video that went viral, in which he impersonated Salt Bae by sprinkling herbs on noodle soup, calling himself “Green Onion Bae”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Vietnam’s Public Security Minister To Lam. File
| Photo Credit: AFP

Vietnam has nominated its Public Security Minister To Lam as its new president, state media said on May 18, after his predecessor resigned in the ongoing anti-corruption campaign that has shaken up the country’s political establishment.

The Communist Party’s Central Committee had agreed to the nomination of To Lam, a Politburo member, as President, state-run Vietnam News Agency reported. The nomination will likely be approved by Vietnam’s National Assembly during its next session on May 21.

Former President Vo Van Thuong resigned in March after a little over a year in the position. His predecessor had also resigned in 2023 while taking “political responsibility” for corruption scandals during the pandemic.

The anti-graft campaign is being led by Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, 79, an ideologue who views graft as the gravest threat facing the party. The country’s most powerful politician has vowed that no one is untouchable in the so-called “blazing furnace” campaign.

Mr. Lam, who spent over four decades in the Ministry of Public Security before becoming the Minister in 2016, has been a key figure in the execution of anti-corruption measures.

The most recent high-profile resignation linked to the campaign was that of Vietnam’s Parliament head, Vuong Dinh Hue, in April. The current vice-speaker, Tran Thanh Man, has been appointed as Mr. Hue’s replacement.

Political instability can threaten economic ambitions, fear experts

The president and the head of Vietnam’s Parliament are among the top four political positions in the party and the resignations point to instability that analysts say could threaten Vietnam’s ambitions as it vies to become an alternative to China in the region’s supply chains.

Analysts say that rivals in the party were jostling to position themselves as a successor to Mr. Trong, who was elected to an unprecedented third term as party chief in 2021. Given his age, experts say that it is unlikely that he will continue for another term.

“Kissing rocks”, a popular tourist spot in Vietnam’s Ha Long Bay, are at risk of collapse, according to a report. Released in July, the report said that rising sea levels and fishing boats travelling too close are causing the rocks to erode, as per a BBC report. The twin rocks rise out of the bay facing each other and appear to touch – or “kiss” – which makes them popular among tourists. The Ha Long Bay in Quang Ninh province is home to hundreds of such tiny islets, attracting four million tourists in 2019, as per the outlet.

The research on these rocks was carried out by Vietnam’s Institute of Geosciences and Mineral Resources. Ho Tien Chung, an expert working with the institute, said they observed one tourist boat stopping within just 19 metres of the islet.

There were also deep fissures, which make them prone to collapse.

“Tourists can see the rocks that are precarious at low tide,” the BBCquoted Ho Tien Chung as saying.

“The water level then is low, exposing the supporting foot of the rocks which are gradually being eroded, causing a risk of collapse if no measures are taken to protect and reinforce them soon,” the experts further said.

Straits Times said these rocks are around 1.39 metres tall, with the base more slender than the upper structure. Due to geological and tectonic movements, along with the influence of seawater levels, the rocks present as a single tilted structure with multiple fractures.

As an immediate measure, the experts from the institute have recommended limiting tourism activities and limiting the speed of boats passing through it.