VIETNAM-General Sec. Trong Dies Aged 80

Nguyen Phu Trong, General Secretary of the Central Committe of the Communist Party of Vietnam has died aged 80 after months of ill health according to the Nhan Dan newspaper. Trong was the seniormost figure within Vietnamese politics, consolidating power in his position after a decade of domination by then-PM Nguyen Tan Dung.

• Washington Post reports: "Trong’s departure leaves a power vacuum and opens a rare window of political uncertainty in Vietnam...To Lam, Vietnam’s longtime minister of public security who was recently installed as president, is seen as a likely candidate to replace Trong as party secretary..."
• Trong was seen as a hardliner who oversaw a reversal of the early-2000s political liberalisation. However, on the foreign policy front he facilitated the significant rapprochement with the US that has seen Vietnam become one of the few Asian nations successfully maintaining strong economic and diplomatic links with Washington, D.C., and Beijing.
• As WaPo notes "Vietnam, on its part, has sought to use Washington as a counterweight to Beijing, especially in the face of increased Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea, which is claimed in part by Vietnam."
• Focus will now turn to the political vacuum and who fills the senior position in the long term, as well as if the new Gen. Sec. pivots Hanoi's foreign policy towards China or the US.