Vietnam and India officially signed a joint statement on strategic partnership during the visit by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to India from July 4-6, state media reported.
In an interview given to Vietnam News Agency July 7 Dung affirmed that this is the most important result of his visit.
PM Dung expressed his hope that India would become one of the most important partners of Vietnam in the fields of politics, economics, trade, investment, security, defense, science and technology, and education in the near future.
The signing took place in New Delhi July 6 after the talks between Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
In order to build and develop the strategic partnership, the two nations agreed to strengthen their politic relations and enhance cooperation in security and defense, especially in training, exchange of information on corruption, sea pirate, and transnational crime.
In trade field, Vietnam and India set a target of obtaining a two-way trade turnover of US$2 billion in 2010 and US$5 billion in 2015. India agreed to Vietnam’s proposal to recognize Vietnam as a full market-oriented economy and help reduce the country’s trade deficit.
The PMs also vowed to boost cooperation in science, technology, education and training, credit, culture, tourism, agriculture, and transport. The Indian government decided to give a US$45-million soft loan to Vietnam to build some hydropower plant.
Vietnam committed to continuously support India’s “Look East” policy and become a bridge for India-ASEAN relations.
Vietnam will support India’s bid for a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council when the council is expanded. India, meanwhile, supports Vietnam’s efforts to become a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for the 2008-2009 tenure.
The two countries inked seven important cooperation documents, including a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on fisheries and aquaculture cooperation, a MoU between Vietnam’s Science and Technology Ministry and India’s Nuclear Energy Ministry to continue with nuclear energy cooperation for peaceful purposes and a MoU on land and property exchange for the two countries’ diplomatic representative missions.
A MoU on the establishment of an English Language Training Centre in central coastal Danang city, a cultural exchange programme, a cooperation plan on agricultural research and education between the two agriculture ministries for the 2007-09 period and an educational exchange program between the Vietnamese and Indian governments were also signed.
During the visit, enterprises of both sides inked many contracts and agreements with total value of nearly US$4.5 billion.
They included agreements between the VCCI and the Confederation of Indian Industry, the Vietnam Steel Corporation and its Indian partner, Tata group, the Vietnam Chemical Corporation and Phillips Carbon Black, Vietnam-based Industrial and Irrigation Construction Corporation and Athena, Vietnam's Sovico Company and its Indian partner Sun Group, the Quoc Anh Education Development Company have education deals in place with the SSM group.
During the visit to India, the Vietnamese Prime Minister met with leaders of many giant corporations such as Tata, Relience, Essar, ONGC, Inforsys, NIIT, Wipro, Ranbasy, Satyam, Gail and Aditya Birla in Maharastra and West Bengal states, which all expressed their hopes to expand operation or invest in Vietnam.
In New Delhi, Dung paid a courtesy visit to Indian President Abdul Kalam and Indian National Congress Party (I) Chairwoman Sonia Gandhi, and held talks with Speaker of the Lok Sabha (House of the People) Shri Somnath Chatterjee, leader of the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Shri L. K. Advani, General Secretary of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Prakash Karat and General Secretary of the Communist Party of India A.B Bardhan.
He also attended Vietnam-India business forums in Mumbai, Kolkata and New Delhi and made speeches to affirm Vietnam’s efforts to create favorable conditions for cooperation between enterprises of both sides.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will pay an official visit to Vietnam at a convenient time.
2007 saw a breakthrough in India’s investment in Vietnam with steel projects by the Essar and Tata conglomerates, placing India in the group of 10 biggest investors in Vietnam. India’s direct investment in Vietnam reached US$580 million in 2006.
The two-way trade increased from US$72 million in 1995 to US$375 million in 2002 and more than US$1 billion in 2006, and the ASEAN country always suffers from trade deficit. (The People, Investment, VNA)
Vietnamese
