Vietnam-India Strategic Partnership

According to statistics, economic-trade-investment cooperation between Vietnam and India has grown fast. In 2011, total bilateral trade turnover of Vietnam and India reached US$3.9 billion, up nearly four times that of five years ago. In the first 6 months of 2012, total bilateral trade volume reached US$1.89 billion. Vietnam-India trade exchange has had a stable legal framework. India has recognised Vietnam as market economy. A series of cooperation agreements have been signed to create favourable conditions to develop economic, trade and investment relations.

Defence, security cooperation of the two countries in recent years has been constantly developing. Specifically, the two countries have exchanged official visits at all levels, maintained the strategic dialogue between Deputy Ministers of Defence and strengthened training cooperation, and naval cooperation.

According to experts, India is one of the partners with great potential especially in high technology fields including information technology, biology, nanotechnology, molecular biology, and space technology. The cooperation between the two countries on science and technology started very early, dating back to 1978. Vietnam-India Sub-committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation has so far had eight meetings and implemented 13 joint cooperation projects researching in the fields of information technology, agriculture, animal husbandry, industry, remote sensing, and environmental protection. India has also helped Vietnam to train more professionals and researchers in the field of atomic energy and human resources on information technology.

According to Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan, the relations of traditional friendship between Vietnam - India has been formed since the first decades of the 20th century. It is the two great leaders of the two nations namely President Ho Chi Minh and Prime Minister J. Nehru that laid the foundation and the next generation of leaders and people of two countries nurtured and nourished. Over 40 years, the relations have been increasingly developed. It has been growing more profound since the two countries signed the “declaration on cooperation between the Republic of India and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam as they enter the 21st century” during the visit to India of General Secretary Nong Duc Manh in May 2003 and the “joint declaration on the strategic partnership between India and Vietnam" in the visit of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to India in July 2007. Currently, the strategic partnership between the two countries is still based on five main pillars: political, defence and security, trade, cultural and human resources training.

According to Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan, Vietnam needs to take the advantage of India's development of high-tech science built in Vietnam such as the Vietnam-India Advanced Resource Centre in Information and Communications Technology (ARC-ICT)), Centre for Supercomputing Pa-ram, the English Centre in Danang, and Vietnam-India Training Centre for Nuclear Energy in Dalat. Vietnam also needs to early implement projects agreed with India such as building a center for research and training high quality information technology in Vietnam named Bangalore, English Language Centre at the Diplomatic Academy (Hanoi), the Centre of " data and detect station and receive satellite data," Centre of "data and crime evidence recovery” named as Indira Grandhi " in the future.

Elevating the relations
In the framework of the workshop; over five sessions with 14 presentations, all of the participants agreed that in the past 40 years, whatever the circumstances, India has always been a faithful friend of Vietnam. However, Dr Dang Dinh Quy, President of the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam, said that both countries need time to warm up the relationship by strengthening the exchange of visits, especially high-level visits in the field of security and defence, promoting cooperation between research institutions and research institutes in both countries, further improving the overall regulatory framework between the two countries, early establishing  Joint Trade Committee, cooperating to build science and technology park in Vietnam, and  fully exploiting the high-tech centre built in Vietnam. Also, besides the bilateral contents, the two countries also find common ground in view of international issues and regions, notably the security structure in Asia - Pacific.

MrRanjit Rae - Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of India in Vietnam said that in the coming time the two countries should further strengthen the positive implementation of youth activities for future generation owners of each country to understand the good traditional relations between the two countries, maintaining loyal relationships. Also, the global economic, political and geographical context has been a positive impact to the bilateral relations. The economic reform programs as well as global integration process of the two economies have opened up many opportunities for cooperation of mutual benefit. However, the two sides still differ on the way or cognitive that makes businesses difficult to access and share information and opportunities to work together.

 

Also, according to Dr Nguyen Van Lich, in the next 5 to 10 years, India, which is one of the most populous countries in the world, will have great demand for raw materials and energy. While the domestic supply is not enough, India is forced to find solutions by the alternative strategic sources of crude oil, coal, natural rubber, and building materials ... and those are advantageous products of Vietnam. Thus the two countries will have many opportunities to further strengthen trade, as well as look for more opportunities to do business for the business community, as Mr Lich said.

Mr Ly Quoc Hung, General Director of African, West and South Asian Markets Department, Ministry of Industry and Trade said that the bright spot in economic-investment cooperation between Vietnam and India is currently India is one of the 10 largest trading partners of Vietnam. However, to overcome the existing obstacles in economic cooperation, Vietnam and India should continue to improve the legal framework for economic and trade activities, early establish a Joint Trade Committee in order to promote bilateral relations and cooperation. Accordingly, immediately, priority should be cooperation in the financial sector, banking, telecommunications, and port construction.