General Phùng Quang Thanh. — Photo nld.com.vn

HÀ NỘI — General Phùng Quang Thanh, former member of the Politburo and former Minister of National Defence, passed away after a period of illness at 3:45am on September 11 at his private home in Hà Nội, according to the Central Committee on Health Care for Senior Governmental Officials.

The memorial services and burial ceremony for General Phùng Quang Thanh will be announced later.

General Phùng Quang Thanh was born on February 2, 1949 in Thạch Đà Commune, Mê Linh District in the northern province of  Vĩnh Phúc.

He was a member of the 9th, 10th and 11th Party Central Committee and Member of the Politburo of the 10th and 11th Party Central Committee and deputy of the 11th, 12th, and 13th National Assembly. He was awarded the rank of General in July 2007.

His military career is a shining example of heroic fighting spirit, resilience, will and effort to rise up.

At the 10th National Party Congress in 2006, he was elected to the Party Central Committee and elected by the Party Central Committee to the Politburo and assigned as Deputy Secretary of the Central Military Commission and Defence Minister.

At the 11th National Party Congress in 2011, he continued to be elected to the Party Central Committee and to the Politburo and assigned as the Deputy Secretary of the Central Military Commission.

At the first session of the 13th National Assembly, General Phùng Quang Thanh was approved by the National Assembly to continue to hold the position as Minister of National Defence.

At the 11th session of the 13th National Assembly in April 2016, the National Assembly approved the dismissal of Phùng Quang Thanh as Minister of National Defence.

With many contributions to the revolutionary cause of the Party and the development and growth of the Army, comrade Phùng Quang Thanh was honoured with Hero of the People's Armed Forces and many other noble titles. — VNS