Vietnam’s vice president becomes interim president

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnam’s Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan will serve as acting president after the previous president’s resignation a year into the position, a Communist Party newspaper reported Thursday.

Analysts said a permanent candidate was unlikely to be selected soon, underscoring the growing concerns among foreign investors about political instability in the Southeast Asian nation that is a growing manufacturing hub and sits at the middle of the U.S.-China competition for global influence.

Xuan, 54, became vice president in 2021 and she will be serving as acting president for the second time, the Tuoi Tre daily reported.

On Wednesday, President Vo Van Thuong resigned due to unspecified violations that hurt the perception and reputation of the party and the state, the Communist Party said. Thuong’s predecessor Nguyen Xuan Phuc had resigned last year to take “political responsibility” for corruption scandals during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although the violations were not detailed, analysts said the party’s language made it clear he was implicated in the anti-corruption campaign.

That the youngest president in Vietnam’s modern history, once considered the protege of Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong, 79, became its shortest-tenured is a “political earthquake,” said Nguyen Khac Giang, an analyst at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.

And it is likely to be followed by a “very complicated” succession within the party that’ll likely last until the all-important National Congress in 2026 — the party’s most important meeting when the successor to the Trong, Vietnam’s most powerful politician, will be determined.

The ideologically conservative Trong has held the position since 2011 and Thuong’s departure