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HANOI, Vietnam – Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang, the country's number two leader after the ruling Communist Party leader, died Friday after a serious illness, the government said. He was 61 years old.
Quang died despite "every effort to treat him by Vietnamese and foreign teachers and doctors and by the party and state leaders," the statement said. He said that Quang had died in a military hospital in Hanoi but that he had not specified his illness.
The online newspaper run by the state VnExpress citing a former health minister and the head of a national health committee of leaders, Nguyen Quoc Trieu, saying that Quang had contracted a rare and toxic virus since last July and had traveled to Japan six times to seek treatment. He did not specify the virus.
Trieu said the president fell into a deep coma after being admitted to the 108 national military hospital on Thursday afternoon.
"Japanese teachers and doctors treated him and helped to consolidate the president's health for about a year," said Trieu. "However, there are no drugs in the world that can completely cure the disease, instead, it can only prevent it and repel it for a while."
Quang hosted President Donald Trump on his first state visit to the communist country last year, when Trump attended a Pacific leaders summit.
US Ambassador Daniel Kritenbrink congratulated Quang on his contribution to promoting relations between the two former enemies.
"His welcome to President Donald J. Trump's historic state visit to Hanoi in November 2017 has advanced the global US-Vietnamese partnership on the basis of mutual understanding, shared interests, and a common desire to promote democracy. peace, cooperation and prosperity. and security in the Indo-Pacific region, "he said in a statement posted on the website of the embassy.
Phil Roberston, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said Quang would be remembered for "a multi-year crackdown on human rights and the detention of more political prisoners in Vietnam."
According to Amnesty International, 97 activists were jailed last April.
The Communist Party does not tolerate any challenge to its one-party regime and often jails people for peacefully expressing their opinions, even though Hanoi argues that only offenders are put behind bars.
The last public appearance of Quang took place at a meeting of the Politburo of the ruling Communist Party and a reception for a Chinese delegation on Wednesday. He seemed frail to the broadcast of Vietnamese state television.
Quang did not appear in public for more than a month last year, sparking speculation about his health.
Born in the north of Ninh Binh province, Quang attended a police school and rose through the ranks of the powerful Ministry of Public Security before being appointed minister in 2011.
Quang was elected president in April 2016 by the National Assembly dominated by the Communist Party, becoming the second most powerful man in the country after Secretary-General Nguyen Phu Trong.
The National Assembly is expected to convene a session next month and is expected to elect a new president.
Funeral arrangements were not announced immediately.
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