Vietnam treasures comprehensive strategic partnership with India

NA Chairman Hue highlighted the political significance of his trip to India in response to the invitations of Indian parliamentary leaders with a view to maintaining the exchange of high-level delegations between the two countries amid challenging COVID-19 pandemic.

The visit demonstrates both nations’ respect and desire to deepen their comprehensive strategic partnership as well as the relationship between the two legislative bodies.

According to the top Vietnamese legislator, his visit to India in late 2021 serves three major purposes. Firstly, the visit aims to create to add fresh impetus to the relationship between the two countries, and is an opportune occasion for the two sides to discuss measures to further step up all-around cooperation in the fields of politics, defence- security, economy-trade, investment, labour, education, health care, and vaccine technology transfer and production, thereby making practical contributions to the fight against the pandemic and economic recovery during and after COVID-19 pandemic.

Secondly, the visit is viewed as an opportunity for the two countries to gain a better understanding about the situation regarding socio-economic development and foreign policy of each country in the coming time. Third, through the visit, leaders of the two countries can compare notes on international and regional issues of shared concern and seek solutions to global challenges as a way of ensuring peace, security, stability and development in the region and in the world as a whole.

Talking about the overview of the comprehensive strategic partnership between Vietnam and India in the past time and development orientations in the coming time, NA Chairman Hue said Vietnam and India have enjoyed a long-standing traditional friendship, which was built by President Ho Chi Minh and Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and cultivated by successive generations of leaders and people of the two countries.

The two countries upgraded their relations to the level of a comprehensive strategic partnership during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 2016 visit to Vietnam. This was a turning point to upgrade the relationship to new heights, thereby meeting the needs and aspirations of both nations' leaders and people in commensurate with the development history and stature of the bilateral relationship.

Vietnam has always attached great importance to consolidating and strengthening its traditional friendship and comprehensive strategic partnership with India and is elated to see the South Asian nation prioritize promoting ties with Vietnam in its "Act East" policy.

Over the past 5 years, the Vietnam - India comprehensive strategic partnership has been continuously consolidated and developed on many cooperation pillars. The two countries are closely coordinating to implement the 2021-2023 Action Program in order to develop the relationship in a substantive and effective manner, bringing practical benefits to their governments and people.

Despite being affected by the COVID-19 pandemic over the past two years, the two sides have maintained high-level meetings and adopted the Joint Vision for Peace, Prosperity and People in December 2020.

National defence and security have become an important pillar of the comprehensive strategic partnership with specific cooperation plans and programs between the armies and services of the two countries.

In terms of trade and investment, India has become one of the 10 largest trading partners of Vietnam, with the two-way trade turnover growing by an average of 20% annually. Notably, it doubled over the past 5 years and may hit the US$12 billion mark this year.

Worthy of note is that two-way trade expanded by nearly 40% to reach nearly US$11 billion compared to the same period last year and exceeded the total trade turnover of 2020. The Vietnamese NA leader expressed his confidence that the two sides will achieve the trade target of US$15 billion in the coming years.

Regarding investment, India currently has more than 300 investment projects in Vietnam with a total registered capital of around U$S1 billion, ranking 26th out of 141 countries and territories investing in Vietnam. India's projects focus the most on the processing and manufacturing industry with 60 projects totally capitalized at US$459.67 million, accounting for 50.5% of total investment capital.

Vietnam always welcomes Indian businesses to intensify investment in Vietnam in areas where India has strengths such as processing technology, manufacturing, auto supporting industry, information and communication technology, energy and renewable energy.

Hue suggested that the two sides step up investment promotion activities, introduce the investment environment of the two countries to potential corporations and businesses, seek investment cooperation opportunities, and share experience in new areas such as digital transformation, digital economy, information technology, application of new techniques to develop high-quality human resources in order to serve the industrial revolution 4.0

Other traditional areas of cooperation such as education - training, agriculture, culture, tourism and people-to-people exchange have seen substantial developments.

The Indian government is also supporting Vietnam in restoring and preserving the groups of Cham towers at My Son, which are a symbol of the thousand-year cultural interference between the two countries.

Concerning the parliamentary cooperation between Vietnam and India, Hue considers it one of the important and effective cooperation channels and an integral part of the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two nations

The two sides have maintained delegation exchange, share experience in the field of parliamentary activities and exchange views on issues of mutual concern, as well as boosting closer cooperation and offered mutual support at regional and international parliamentary forums.

In the coming time, the two sides will closely coordinate to organize practical commemoration activities in the buildup to the 50th anniversary of their diplomatic relations in 2022, thus deepening people’s mutual understanding of Vietnam - Vietnam relations.

A range of activities regarding delegation exchange, seminars, conferences, cultural events and people-to-people exchanges will also be launched across cities of the two countries on this occasion.

Hue said he believes that, in the not too distant future, India will become one of Vietnam's leading important partners in the fields of politics, economy, trade, investment, security - defence, science - technology, culture, and education - training.

With regard to future cooperation between the legislatures, the two sides will continue to promote the role of the legislative bodies in promoting bilateral relations and sharing experience, especially in revamping institutions and fine-tuning the legal system for the development of the digital economy and digital society. This should be done along with promulgating legal policies aimed at promptly supporting the two governments in pandemic prevention and control and post-pandemic recovery.

The NA leader also highly appreciated the cooperation and mutual support of the two countries in the fight against the pandemic.