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Party General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong and Indian President Ram Nath Kovind witness the signing of several cooperation deals (Photo: VNA) |
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He made the affirmation on November 20 while meeting with domestic and international press in Hanoi to announce the outcomes of his talks with visiting Indian President Ram Nath Kovind.
Besides discussing regional and global issues of mutual interests at the talks, both leaders laid stress on the necessity to deepen the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership in all sectors, and agreed to maintain cooperative mechanisms and carry out the high-level agreements and documents inked between the two sides.
They described defence-security as one of the important pillars in bilateral ties and stressed that both sides should strive to remove any bottlenecks, as well as working out practical policies and measures to elevate two-way trade with a view to increasing import-export revenue to US$15 billion in the near future.
Furthermore, they reached a consensus to step up investment promotion activities in the fields of India’s strengths and Vietnam’s priority for development. Both leaders welcomed the cooperation between the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PVN) and the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) of India in oil exploration and exploitation in Vietnam, saying that more effective cooperative models should be put in place.
In addition, they were unanimous in bolstering collaboration in culture, tourism, aviation, people-to-people exchanges and education-training, among others.
Host and guest affirmed close coordination and support for each other at multilateral forums, especially the United Nations and the Non-Aligned Movement.
Vietnam welcomed India’s “Act East” policy, and spoke highly of India’s backing of ASEAN’s central role in the forming of the regional structure in East Asia. As a coordinator, Vietnam has made significant contributions to fostering the ASEAN-India relations, the host affirmed.
The two leaders stressed the importance of building the Indo-Asia-Pacific into a peaceful and prosperous region based on respect of sovereignty, international law, and freedom of aviation and navigation.
Vietnam attached importance to India’s stance on the East Sea issue over recent years, and thanked the Southern Asian country for continuing to support Vietnam’s viewpoint on this issue.
Ram Nath Kovind, for his part, thanked Party General Secretary and President Trong for giving him and the Indian delegation a warm welcome. Vietnam is a strategic pillar of India in its “Act East” policy and an important dialogue partner of the country in ASEAN.
As comprehensive strategic partners, Vietnam and India are enjoying thriving relations based on mutual trust and understanding, and close cooperation at multilateral forums.
He expressed his delight over the robust economic ties between the two nations, with two-way trade reaching US$12.8 billion in 2017. He said he hopes that, with the concerted efforts made by the two countries, they will realise the set goals of increasing the trade revenue to US$15 billion in 2020.
The Indian President also underlined that similarities in culture have served as a catalyst to strengthen the bonds between the two countries.
Following their talks, both leaders witnessed the signing of several cooperation deals, including a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics and the Jawaharlal Nehru University, a MoU between the Vietnamese Ministry of Information and Communications and Indian Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, a MoU between the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Indian Confederation of Indian Industry, and a MoU between the President of the Indian Business Chamber in Vietnam and the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of Foreign Affairs of Localities.
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