HANOI, September 12- Indian President Pranab Mukherjee will visit Vietnam from Sept 14 to 17 to strengthen bilateral cooperation and strategic partnership, Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported.
Since taking office in May, the government of the Indian People’s Party (BJP) led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been actively promoting India’s “Look East” policy in which Vietnam is regarded a “pillar”.
Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj’s visit to Vietnam on Aug 25 and 26 provided a new driving force to the partnership between the two countries.Vietnam-India relations have been developing rapidly based on the five pillars of politics, economy, security-defence, science-technology and culture-education.Economic cooperation is a shining example of the two countries’ great bilateral relations, with two-way trade estimated to reach US$8 billion compared to US$3.4 billion in 2010.
The two sides are targeting to increase trade value to US$10 billion by 2015 and US$15 billion by 2020.Some 68 Indian-invested projects worth around US$1 billion have been launched in Vietnam in the areas of oil and gas exploration, mineral exploitation and processing, sugar production, agricultural chemicals, information technology and food processing.
Vietnamese companies on the other hand have invested in three projects worth US$23.6 million in India.IT is an important focal point in the knowledge-based partnership between the two countries. India helped Vietnam set up IT and English training centres along with business development institutes.Thanks to India’s support, Vietnam’s rice research institute was established, paving the way for Vietnam to become the world’s leading rice exporter.
Defence collaboration has developed strongly in recent years, with the establishment of a deputy defence minister-level strategic dialogue and the acceleration of joint naval exercises.
The two countries have cooperated at regional and international forums, including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), the East Asia Summit (EAS), the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation (MGC) and the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM).Both countries established diplomatic ties in 1972.
– BERNAMA
