ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Imran Khan have extended their heartfelt condolences on the sad demise of Vietnam President Tran Dai Quang.
“The people and the government of Pakistan are with the people of Vietnam at this hour of grief,” Dr Mohammad Faisal, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in his tweet. Tran Dai Quang, aged 61, died after prolonged but unspecified serious illness, the Vietnam News Agency reported.
Nguyen Quoc Trieu, a government doctor, was quoted by the state news media as saying that Mr Quang had died of a rare and serious viral disease at a military hospital in Hanoi, the capital. Quang had fallen ill last July and traveled to Japan six times for treatment, he said.
It is rare for a sitting Vietnamese president to die in office, and Quang’s death will leave a political vacuum on the Politburo, said Huong Le Thu, an expert on the Asian security at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in Canberra.
