Just a year ago, To Lam was mostly known as Vietnam’s public security minister and for his central role in the Communist Party’s anti-corruption crusade, dubbed the “blazing furnace”.
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But in August last year, less than three months after his appointment as president, he made a stunning ascent to general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam.
Little is known about how the former security tsar outmanoeuvred candidates favoured by his predecessor, Nguyen Phu Trong, but Lam has emerged as a formidable leader, adept at engaging rival global powers – China, the US, and Russia – while consolidating his domestic control and safeguarding Vietnam’s sovereignty and economic interests.
His ability to combine diplomatic pragmatism and calculated assertiveness, particularly in the South China Sea, has elevated Vietnam as a rising middle power and reshaped its “bamboo diplomacy” to allow it to thrive in a multipolar world.
Fresh from securing multiple cooperation agreements with Chinese President Xi Jinping during Xi’s visit to Hanoi and from holding direct talks with US President Donald Trump to delay a devastating tariff war, Lam is en route to his first official visit to Russia this week. He is scheduled to attend Moscow’s Red Square Victory Day parade on May 9, alongside Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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His handling of ties with China has been particularly impressive, prompting warnings from mainland analysts that Lam could prove more pragmatic than his predecessor Trong, who died in July last year after having ruled the country since 2011.