A vigorous India-Vietnam partnership, Modi said at a luncheon that Phuc hosted for him, will lead to prosperity, development, peace and stability for people in the two countries and in the wider region.
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New Delhi: Insisting that signing of the defence logistics sharing pact with the USA is a “fundamental departure” from India’s policy of “strategic military neutrality”, Congress demands the contents of the agreement be placed in public domain as the Modi government has acted “unilaterally without national consensus”.
The Prime Minister’s counter-terrorism theme also resonated strongly during his meeting on Monday with British Prime Minister, Theresa May.
“There are some nations that use it as an instrument of state policy”, he added. India has a policy of zero tolerance to terrorism.
Modi also raised the issue of visa restrictions on Indians, Swarup said.
“Vietnam is playing that game: ‘Come on, China, get close to us, cooperate, but if you don’t we can move to India or we’ll go talk to you after the Prime Minister of India has just been through, ‘” he said.
Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to China, India on Saturday elevated its relationship with Vietnam from “Strategic Partnership” to “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership” while significantly deepening defence and security engagement with the southeast Asian nation “to advance our common interests”. “Clearly someone funds and arms them and the BRICS must intensify its joint efforts not only to fight terror, but to coordinate actions to isolate those who are supporters and sponsors of terror”.
Pak-India relations have been strained after recent violence in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) post brutal killing of Kashmiris’ leader Burhan Wani.
Before his arrival in the Chinese city of Hangzhou on Saturday, Prime Minister Modi sent a strong message to Beijing by strengthening ties with Vietnam.
He also thanked Vietnam’s leadership in facilitating inscription of Nalanda Mahavihara as a UNESCO World Heritage site earlier this year.
She also underlined the importance Britain attaches to the Indian diaspora.
In his last bilateral meeting of the day, Modi met Argentine President Mauricio Macri and invited him to India.
“The prime ministers agreed to further enhance cooperation in the oil and gas sector and urged both sides to actively implement the Agreement signed in 2014 between PVN and OVL on cooperation in new blocks in Vietnam”.
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One agreement was signed with L&T for utilising $100 million of the $500 million defence line of credit India offered to Vietnam to build patrol boats.
