Painful loss: People reacting as they line up to visit the National Funeral House in Hanoi to pay respects to Trong in Hanoi. — AFP
Thousands of mourners gathered in Hanoi for the second day of the funeral of the man who dominated Vietnamese politics for over a decade, Communist Party general secretary Nguyen Phu Trong.
His death, at 80, last week in Hanoi marked the start of a succession struggle within the party that will likely continue until the all-important National Party Congress of Vietnam’s Communist Party in 2026.
Trong’s coffin, draped in the red and yellow of Vietnam’s flag, was laid beneath his smiling portrait and dozens of medals at the National Funeral House in Hanoi on Thursday.
All flags in the South-East Asian nation flew at half mast during the two-day period of national mourning, while all sports and entertainment were suspended.
He will be buried at Mai Dich cemetery, the final resting place for military heroes and senior party officials.
Top Communist Party officials paid tribute, including President To Lam, who took over as caretaker general secretary a day before Trong’s death was announced.
Thousands of people, many of whom had travelled from far-flung provinces, queued up in Hanoi late into Thursday to light incense and pay their respects.
Politburo member Luong Cuong said on Thursday that his death was “an extremely huge, irreparable loss to the Party, the state, the people and his family”.
South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo; Wang Huning, the fourth-ranked leader in the Chinese Communist Party; former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga; Cuban National Assembly President Esteban Lazo Hernandez; and Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval were among those in attendance on Thursday.
Trong advocated a pragmatic foreign policy of “bamboo diplomacy,” a phrase he coined that refers to the plant’s flexibility, bending but not breaking in the shifting headwinds of geopolitics.
Vietnam is unlikely to abandon that approach, under which it has pursued pragmatic cooperation with its much larger and more powerful neighbour China while maintaining good ties with other countries like the US, Japan and India, said Gregory B. Poling, who heads the South-East Asia Programme at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Lam is likely to keep playing a dual role as the president and the caretaker party chief until 2026, said Poling.
He added that Lam is the current favourite to get a full term as Trong’s successor, but there is no guarantee. — AP
