Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Vietnam President Tran Dai Quang Vietnam President Tran Dai Quang will visit India March 2-4, officials sources here confirmed 

India continued to be among Vietnam’s top ten largest trading partners as the bilateral trade turnover has increased 16% per annum on average in the past decade.

India-Vietnam strategic partnership is on upswing with President Tran Dai Quang visiting India little over a month after Vietnam’s PM visit to Delhi as India seeks to expand foothold in periphery of China. On a trip that will be marked by landmark MoUs in civil nuclear cooperation and port development President Quang told ET that Hanoi cherishes defence partnership with India.

Can you elaborate on growth in Indo-Vietnam defence partnership? 

Defense and security have been the effective strategic areas of cooperation. India has actively supported Vietnam in training, capacity building, defense technology transfer and defense credit. 

What are Vietnam’s plan to expand economic ties with India? 

India continued to be among Vietnam’s top ten largest trading partners as the bilateral trade turnover has increased 16% per annum on average in the past decade. A large number of major Indian firms have established and expanded their footprints in Vietnam. 

India has given priority to Vietnam in development cooperation and education and training, and paid attention to promoting the bilateral cooperation in science and technology, information and communication, energy, oil and gas, agriculture and tourism.

The cultural bonds and people-to-people exchanges between the two countries have also deepened. A large population of Vietnamese are watching Indian dramas and practicing yoga.

Apart from the bilateral frameworks, both countries have also forged close collaboration and effective mutual support at multilateral fora, especially at the United Nations. Vietnam welcomes India's efforts in and strong commitments to its "Act East" policy as well as to enhancing the connectivity and development cooperation with ASEAN. As the coordinator of ASEAN-India relations for 2015-2018, Vietnam has worked closely with India to drive the India-ASEAN cooperation further forward.

What are the new areas that Vietnam is seeking Indian investments? 

Economic, investment and trade cooperation is one of the areas enjoying very high growth recently, especially since the two countries established the Strategic Partnership in 2007 and upgraded it to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2016. India has become one of Vietnam’s top ten trading partners; our bilateral trade turnover has expanded by 16% per annum over the last 10 years. India also ranked 28th among the 126 countries and territories investing in Vietnam in 2017 with 168 projects and total registered capital of $756 million. Many major Indian corporations, including TATA Group, ONGC and Essar are having sound business in Vietnam.

Vietnam encourages more investments from India so that the latter will become more one of the top investors into Vietnam and the target of US$ 15 billion in bilateral trade by 2020 can be realised. Renewable energy, manufacturing, information technology, infrastructure, to name a few are India’s strength for which Vietnam has need. Both sides need to strengthen both bilateral and regional connectivity as well as infrastructural connectivity such as air links, roads and maritime links, and digital connectivity.

Moreover, both sides need to establish business-to-business and business-to-government dialogue mechanisms, and provide forums for sharing interests, strategies and visions for development cooperation. Both countries’ businesses also need to play a more active role in promoting cooperation.

What is your opinion on India’s Act East Policy? 

Apart from the bilateral frameworks, both countries have also forged close collaboration and effective mutual support at multilateral fora, especially at the United Nations. Vietnam welcomes India's efforts in and strong commitments to its "Act East" policy as well as to enhancing the connectivity and development cooperation with ASEAN. As the coordinator of ASEAN-India relations for 2015-2018, Vietnam has worked closely with India to drive the India-ASEAN cooperation further forward.

India and Vietnam have just completed ten years of the Strategic Partnership and one year of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. What is your evaluation of India –Vietnam relations? 

Vietnam and India have enjoyed a long-standing traditional friendship with various historical and cultural similarities, which was established by President Ho Chi Minh and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and nurtured by successive generations of leaders and people of both countries. The two nations have empathized and supported each other in their struggle for national independence in the past as well as in the national construction and development today.

With trust and many shared interests, the two countries established the Strategic Partnership in July 2007 and upgraded it to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in September 2016. This fine relationship has been concretized in various fields, especially the pillars of politics, national defense, security, economy, trade, investment, culture, science and technology, education and training and people-to-people exchange.

The bilateral political relations have gone from strength to strength thanks to regular mutual visits at the high and lower levels through party-to-party, state-to-state, government-to-government, parliament-to-parliament as well as people-to-people exchanges. The General Secretary, President, Prime Minister and President of the National Assembly of Vietnam have all visited India. Vietnam also hosted the visits of the President, Vice President, Prime Minister, Speaker of the Lok Sabha and National Security Advisor of India. Practical commemorative activities have been hosted by both countries to celebrate the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations and 10 years of the Strategic Partnership.

Bilateral cooperation mechanisms, including the Action Plan 2017-2020, have been effectively implemented, thus facilitating the enhancement of the bilateral cooperation in various areas.