The embalmed body of late President Ho Chi Minh has been preserved well, the State-level medical scientific council affirmed during a working session with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in Hanoi on July 18.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (fifth, right, front) and scientists 

Dang Vu Minh, president of the 11-member council said, the examination and assessment of President Ho Chi Minh’s body, which has been preserved for over 50 years, were carried out from July 12-18.

The council has also proposed orientations as well as scientific and technical solutions to better preserve the President’s body for the long term, said Minh, who is also President of the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations. 

Prof. Banin Victor Vasilievich from the Russian Academy of Sciences said the council agreed on the need to step up cooperation between the President Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum’s Management Board and the Moscow biomedical research centre.  

The council proposed completing procedures to examine and assess President Ho Chi Minh’s body, using modern scientific methods. 

The Russian professor suggested improving the training quality of medical workers and technicians engaging in the preservation work, and regularly organising symposiums for Vietnamese and Russian scientists to exchange relevant information. 

Russian scientists have pledged that they will actively work together with their Vietnamese colleagues to perform the task. 

Speaking at the meeting, PM Phuc lauded efforts made by the council and thanked the Russian scientists for their support and coordination.  

He called on domestic and foreign scientists and the President Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum’s Management Board to closely coordinate with each other in the work.

Among the 11 members of the council are four Russian scientists, who are working at the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian presidential office’s hospital and Russian scientific research institutes. 

After his death on September 2, 1969, the President was embalmed and later placed for viewing at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. The mausoleum was built in two years from 1973 to 1975, with materials donated by people from all over the country.

The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum is an important landmark of the capital city and is integral to the political and social history of Vietnam.