Foreign ministry spokeswoman becomes deputy minister

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh signed a decision Friday to make her and Do Hung Viet, director of the ministry's Department of International Organizations, deputy foreign ministers.

Besides their main jobs, both were also Assistant Ministers of Foreign Affairs since last August.

Le Thi Thu Hang, who is now Vietnam's only female Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. Photo by Vietnam Government Portal

Hang, 50, now Vietnam's only female deputy foreign minister, got a bachelor's degrees in English and Law in Vietnam before obtaining a master's degree in diplomacy and international communications from the University of the West of England.

She used to work as head of the Press and Information Department before becoming the ministry spokesperson in 2017.

Earlier she had been an attaché at the Vietnamese embassy in Russia and a minister counselor at the embassy in Britain, director of the information and culture department of the State Commission for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs.

Viet studied international relations at the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam, before taking a master's degree in public and international law at the University of Melbourne.

Do Hung Viet is now a Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. Photo by Vietnam Government Portal

He used to serve as counselor and deputy permanent representative of Vietnam to the United Nations in New York, U.S., and Special Assistant to APEC 2017 SOM Chair.

He became director of the Department of International Organizations in 2019.

The appointments take the number of deputy ministers under Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son to five, the others being Nguyen Minh Vu, Ha Kim Ngoc and Pham Quang Hieu.