Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two-day visit to Hanoi cements this partnership, in which a dozen agreements were signed, including in defence cooperation, trade expansion, oil exploration, cooperation in solar energy, the building of an information technology infrastructure, and in the health sector.
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Vietnam has shown a keen interest in air and defence production.
In order to enhance bilateral commercial engagement, Modi said, the two countries have agreed to tap new trade and business opportunities to achieve the trade target of $15 billion by 2020.
Prime Minister then began his first bilateral meeting with UK’s new Prime Minister Theresa May on the sidelines of the G20 Summit.
New Delhi’s message to Beijing in recent meetings was that it could not delink bilateral ties from its positions that often oppose India in worldwide fora such as the NSG, where China has sought to delay India’s entry.
His warning on Sunday followed bilateral talks with Barack Obama that the United States president described as “extremely productive”, but which failed to bring the two sides closer on thorny topics such as tensions in the South China Sea.
The credit was for facilitating mutual defence cooperation and relationship that would contribute to stability, securities and prosperity in the region, Modi was quoted as saying by Reuters Saturday.
Mr Modi also called on General Secretary of Communist Party of Vietnam, Nguyen Phu Trong.
“Negative emotions toward Beijing among the Vietnamese people have also been rising”, an article in the state-run Global Times website said.
On Saturday, PM Modi was accorded a ceremonial welcome in front of the majestic Presidential palace.
Xi said both sides had seen healthy, stable and speedy development of their relationship, and that as neighbours and developing nations they should continue high-level exchanges.
India and its 1.25 billion people stand ready to be Vietnam’s partner and a friend in this journey. Modi said he was working on making it easy to do business with India.
He said greater economic partnership would be a win-win for both countries.
Vietnam is India’s country coordinator for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
He called for further strengthening of the global financial safety net. Earlier, India accused China of stalling its membership at the NSG, while China expressed concern over close Indo-US defence ties.
India has already been providing assistance to Vietnam’s navy through training to operate the new Russian-built submarines.
This also comes as Prime Minister Modi is visiting China.
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Noting that ASEAN is important to India in terms of historical links, geographical proximity, cultural ties and the strategic space that the two sides share, he said, “It is central to our “Act East” policy”.
