Today, he is scheduled to meet Vietnamese leaders, including Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Communist Party of Vietnam general secretary Nguyen Phu Trong.
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China has also objected in the past to India’s Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) undertaking exploration at the invitation of Vietnam in the SCS, which is believed to be rich in undersea deposits of oil and gas.
The year 2017 marks a very important milestone in the bilateral relations between the two countries and we would be organising various events throughout the year to commemorate the events.
The East Asia Summit is attended by the leaders of the 10 Asean member states, India, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, the usa and Russian Federation.
The 12 agreements signed on Saturday covered areas like health, cyber security, ship-building, United Nations peace-keeping operations and naval information sharing, including a $5 million deal to build a technology park in the coastal resort city of Nha Trang.
PM Modi further revealed that the India-Vietnam delegation level talks covered the full range of bilateral and multilateral co-operation issues, including defence and security engagements.
It is increasingly looking to new partners to replace or update Soviet-era military equipment, including the United States which lifted a Cold War-era arms embargo in May during a visit by President Barack Obama. The issue is likely to be discussed in depth with Vietnam. It was crystallised to underscore the importance of East Asian neighbors of India and to make them a priority in our foreign policy engagement.
Prime Minister Modi has said that his visit to Vietnam is a reinforcement of friendship, solidarity and comprehensive cooperation of both the countries. He said India was thankful for Vietnam’s leadership in facilitating inscription of Nalanda Mahavihara as a UNESCO World Heritage site earlier this year. India’s bilateral trade with Vietnam now stands at $7.8 billion. “The most feisty neighbour of China is Vietnam”. Linguistic unfamiliarity is a major bottleneck on that count.
Vietnam, on the other hand, sees India as a counter to China’s assertiveness. One of the possible options on that count could be to introduce Vietnamese language courses where there is already a Chinese language centre.
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India needs to be more proactive in its approach, keep a long-term view on trade and economic issues, and show more sincerity in implementing projects. “We look forward to welcoming you in India”, he added.
