Nguyễn Phú Trọng

Nguyễn Phú Trọng (born 14 April 1944) is a Vietnamese politician who has served as general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam since 2011.

As the head of the party's Secretariat, Politburo and Central Military Commission, Trọng is Vietnam's paramount leader.

Nguyễn Phú Trọng was born in Đông Hội Commune, Đông Anh district of Hanoi in 1944.

His official biography gives his family background only as "average peasant".

He studied philology and earned his Bachelor degree in philology at Vietnam National University, Hanoi from 1963 to 1967.

Trọng joined the Communist Party in 1968, and rose through the section devoted to political work.

Nguyễn Phú Trọng officially became a member of the Communist Party of Vietnam in December 1968.

He worked for the Tạp chí Cộng Sản (Communist Review), the theoretical and political agency of the Communist Party of Vietnam (formerly the Labor Party) in the periods of 1968–1973, 1976–1981 and 1983–1996.

From 1973 to 1976, he underwent a political-economic post-graduate course at the High-level Nguyễn Ái Quốc Party School (now the Hồ Chí Minh National Academy of Politics and Public Administration).

Nguyễn Phú Trọng went to the Soviet Union in 1981 to study at the Academy of Sciences and received a Candidate of Sciences degree in history in 1983.

From 1991 to 1996, he served as the editor-in-chief of the Tạp chí Cộng Sản.

He later joined the party's Central Committee in 1994, its Politburo in 1997 and Vietnam's National Assembly in 2002.

Nguyễn Phú Trọng has been member of the party's Central Committee since January 1994, member of the party's Politburo since December 1997 and deputy to the National Assembly since May 2002.

In 1998, Nguyễn Phú Trọng entered the party section devoted to political work, making him one of the most prominent Vietnamese political theoreticians, heading the party Central Committee's Theoretical Council in charge of the party's theoretical work from 2001 to 2006.

Between 2000 and 2006, he was the Party committee secretary of Hanoi, effectively the city's highest-ranking position.

From January 2000 to June 2006, Nguyễn Phú Trọng was secretary of the party's Executive Committee of Hanoi, the de facto head of the city authority.

He was then chairman of the National Assembly from 2006 to 2011.

On 26 June 2006, Nguyễn Phú Trọng was elected as the Chairman of the National Assembly.

During this period, he was elected secretary of the party organization in the National Assembly and member of the Council for Defence and Security.

He was elected general secretary at the party's 11th National Congress in 2011 and re-elected at the 12th National Congress in 2016.

During his leadership, he has pursued a wide anti-corruption campaign, implicating numerous senior officials.

Nguyễn Phú Trọng was elected General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam in 2011 at the 11th National Congress, making him the top leader of Vietnam.

The 5th plenum of the 11th Central Committee decided to take the Central Steering Committee for Anti-Corruption away from the Prime Minister's control and Nguyễn Phú Trọng was elected its head.

On October 11, 2011, he made his first visit to China as General Secretary.

According to the VNA, Hu Jintao and Nguyễn Phú Trọng both agreed to avoid complicating the situation in the South China Sea and calmly handle disagreements through peaceful negotiations.

Vice President of China Xi Jinping came to Vietnam to concretize the results and common perceptions that the leaders of Vietnam - China raised when Mr. Trong came to China during his previous visit in October.

In 2012, he urged the CPV to adopt Resolution No. 12, which called for party building and self-criticism amongst party officials, calling them to lead by example and be held accountable for corruption and waste.

Afterwards, the Central Steering Committee on Anti-corruption was directly placed under the administration of the Politburo.

He further passed the Decision 244 of the CPV, establishing a formalized process of political succession and restricting the ability of CPV delegates to select new Central Committee members by requiring the outgoing Central Committee to approve the candidates.

It also prohibited Politburo members from nominating Central Committee candidates without support from the Politburo.

In 2015, Mr. Trọng paid a visit to China.

According to the VNA, the two leaders emphasized continuing efforts to well implement the motto "friendly neighbourliness, comprehensive cooperation, long-term stability, towards the future."

future" and the spirit of "good neighbours, good friends, good comrades, good partners," always firmly grasping the development direction of Vietnam-China relations.

On 6 July 2015, General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng arrived in the United States to begin his United States visit to July 10, 2015.

This visit coincided with the milestone of twenty years since the United States and Vietnam normalized diplomatic relations.

The talks with President Barack Obama were about human rights, security and defense and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

He also previously served as president of Vietnam from 2018 to 2021.

He became president in 2018 following the death of President Trần Đại Quang, becoming the third person to simultaneously head the party and state after Hồ Chí Minh (in North Vietnam only) and Trường Chinh.

At the 13th National Congress in 2021, he was reelected as general secretary becoming the third leader of Vietnam to secure a third term (after Hồ Chí Minh and Lê Duẩn), and was succeeded by Nguyễn Xuân Phúc as president.

On 23 October 2018, Nguyễn Phú Trọng was elected as the 10th President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in a seasonal meeting of National Assembly.