The memorial service for Party General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng at the National Funeral Hall as national mourning etiquette is held on Friday. — VNA/VNS Photos

HÀ NỘI — A memorial service for General Secretary of the Communist Party of Việt Nam, Nguyễn Phú Trọng, was held at 1pm on Friday at the National Funeral Hall at 5 Trần Thánh Tông, Hà Nội.

Simultaneous services were also organised at his hometown in Đông Hội Commune, Đông Anh District, Hà Nội, and the Independence Palace, Hồ Chí Minh City.

Among the leaders attending the service at the National Funeral Hall were State President Tô Lâm, Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính, National Assembly Chairman Trần Thanh Mẫn, Party Central Committee's Secretariat Standing Member Lương Cường, and former high-ranking Party and State officials.

President Tô Lâm and other Party and State leaders paid the final respects to Party General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng

Party General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng’s family walked past the coffin at the memorial service.

Delivering the funeral eulogy, State President Tô Lâm said the passing of Party General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng is a huge and irreparable loss for our Party, our nation, and our people.

"Our country has lost a talented leader. The world communist and progressive movement has lost a sharp theorist. International friends have lost a sincere friend and close comrade. The family, clan, and homeland in Đông Hội have lost an outstanding son," he said.

After nearly 60 years of rich and persistent revolutionary activities, Professor, Doctor, and Party General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng, "with his scholarly and sharp intellect, left behind a valuable ideological and theoretical system about Việt Nam's revolutionary path in the new era."

He strongly inspired and led the entire Party, people, and army with intelligence, humanistic spirit, noble compassion, strong will, and determination. He also had the personality and honour of a communist soldier who wholeheartedly served the Fatherland and the people with the mindset that “Honour is the most noble and sacred thing.”

President Lâm emphasised that throughout his life of revolutionary activities, building and rectifying the Party and political system held a particularly important position to Trọng.

Under his leadership, for the first time, our Party issued a thematic resolution on building and perfecting a law-governed socialist state of the people, by the people, and for the people. As State President and Chairman of the National Assembly, Trọng was always concerned with building a legislative body that is truly the highest representative body of the people, truly democratic, and acts as a representative of the people and their legitimate rights and interests, Lâm said.

Lâm hailed Trọng for possessing a profound and sharp political vision. The Party leader elevated the level of strategic thinking, creating new developments for Vietnamese defence, security, and foreign affairs with the imprint of “bamboo diplomacy.”

He was always steadfast in the viewpoint that regards the people as the root, “the people are the subject, the centre of the đổi mới (renewal) process."

The entourage passes the Hà Nội Opera House.

The casket of Party leader Nguyễn Phú Trọng, wrapped in the national flag, then left the National Funeral Hall to make way to Mai Dịch Cemetery for the burial service at 3pm. — VNS

People carry flowers to bid farewell to the passing Party leader.