Colonel General Nguyen Tan Cuong takes over as Vietnam's Chief
of the General Staff of the army on June 3, 2021.
Photo by Vietnam News Agency. 

Colonel General Nguyen Tan Cuong was appointed Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnamese People's Army by President Nguyen Xuan Phuc on Thursday. 

Cuong, 55, has been a commander for two army corps from 2011 to 2018. In November 2018, he was appointed Deputy Chief of General Staff of the army, and from December 2019, he has worked as the Deputy Minister of National Defense.

Phuc requested Cuong to make efforts so that the Ministry of National Defense and the army contribute to the Party and the state, as well as ensuring that the army is always ready for battle and accomplishes its missions successfully.

Earlier, on April 8, Cuong’s predecessor, Colonel General Phan Van Giang, was appointed by the National Assembly as the new Minister of National Defense.

Vietnam's defense spending was 2.36 percent of GDP or approximately $5.8 billion in 2018, an increase from 2.23 percent of GDP in 2010, according to the defense ministry's White Paper issued in 2019.