Party leader Nguyen Phu Trong met with Indian President Pranab Mukherjee in New Delhi

(VOVworld)- General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Nguyen Phu Trong met with Indian President Pranab Mukherjee in New Delhi on Wednesday.  President Pranab Mukherjee affirmed that India always attaches importance to maintaining and continuously boosting the friendship and multifaceted cooperation with Vietnam, adding that India defines Vietnam as one of the top priority in its “Look East” policy. The two leaders agreed that the Vietnam-India relationship has seen important progress in recent years, especially since it was upgraded to a strategic partnership. As the two countries see great potential for cooperation, they agreed on the need to exert efforts to step up cooperation in the five pillars of their strategic partnership, particularly in economics, trade and investment, in an effort to raise two-way trade to 7 billion USD by 2015. They added that the two sides need to effectively implement joint projects on oil and gas and power plant construction. The two leaders also exchanged views on several regional and international issues of common concern and agreed that the two countries should continue working closely at multilateral forums, especially the ASEAN-India framework and the United Nations.

The same day, in a meeting with Vice President and Senate Chairman Hamid Ansari, General Secretary Trong said Vietnam stands ready to make it easier for Indian firms to do business in Vietnam. Discussing legislative link, they reached agreement to further strengthen friendly exchanges and the sharing of experience and information between both countries’ law-making bodies.

General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Nguyen Phu Trong held talks with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi the same day. Trong affirmed that Vietnam always pays attention to maintaining and developing its traditional friendship and strategic cooperation with India.
Both host and guest also talked ways to deepen the bilateral strategic partnership as well as discussed regional and global issues of mutual interest.

Party leader Nguyen Phu Trong and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh

They reached consensus on concrete steps to promote cooperation in the five pillars of the strategic partnership. Accordingly, the two nations will strengthen the close and trustworthy political ties as an important foundation for their relationship while increasing all-level visits in the coming time in order to bolster friendship and mutual trust. Both sides stressed that national defence and security links will continue being a key pillar in the Vietnam-India strategic partnership. The two sides agreed to strongly and practically boost economic and trade cooperation to match bilateral potentials and aspirations. Vietnam will facilitate India’s TATA group in implementing the Long Phu 2 Thermal Power Project considering a model for BOT cooperation in the current period. They agreed to expand cooperation in oil and gas exploration in Vietnam’s territorial waters in the East Sea.

At the meeting, General Secretary Trong and the India PM also discussed regional and international issues of mutual concern. Both sides reached a consensus that related countries and the international community need to raise their responsibility and strive to ensure peace, territorial sovereignty and security for all the countries, maintain an environment of peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region. The leaders agreed that all disputes on the East Sea should be settled by peaceful means, in line with international law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). They pledged the close coordination in their stance and activities on regional and international forums.  General Secretary Trong hailed India’s Look East Policy, and highly valued its boosting of strategic partnership with ASEAN. He also pledged to support India’s participation in mechanisms where ASEAN play a central role, contributing to maintain the peace, stability, cooperation and development in the Southeast Asia and East Asia region.

Following their talks, the two leaders held a joint press conference on the outcomes of their talks. Party leader Trong said: “With great interests and potential for bilateral cooperation, the two sides established the strategic partnership in 2007. My visit aimed at expanding and deepening our strategic partnership. The Indian Prime Minister and I had open, reliable and practical talks”.

For his part, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said: “We want to further the bilateral ties between India and Vietnam in various areas, not only within the framework of bilateral but also of multi-lateral cooperation. Vietnam is currently a country with the highest economic growth rate in the Asia Pacific region and India highly appreciates this development. India considers Vietnam a reliable and important partner and relationship with Vietnam is an important pillar in our Look East policy”.

The two leaders also witnessed the signing of eight cooperation documents, namely the Air Service Agreement, an MoU on the establishment of the Indira Gandhi Hi-tech Crime Lab in Hanoi, an agreement on Protection of Classified Information, an MoU between two Ministries of Finance, a cooperation agreement between Hanoi National University and Indian Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, an MoU on cooperation between India Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore and Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Public Administration, an MoU between Vietnam Oil and Gas Group and ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL), and an MOU between the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade and Tata Power Ltd. on the development of the 1,320MW Long Phu 2 Thermal Power Project in Soc Trang province, Vietnam. Later the same day, PM Manmohan Singh hosted a banquet for General Secretary Trong and the Vietnamese delegation.