India and Vietnam signed eight agreements including those in areas of defence and security, oil exploration, civil aviation and scientific research.

The agreements were signed yesterday after delegation level talks between Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Nguyen Phu Trong in New Delhi. In his media statement, Dr. Singh said both countries have decided to further strengthen cooperation in the area of defence and security. He said that India will continue to assist Vietnam in the modernization and training of its defence and security forces, including a 100 million dollar line of credit for defence purchases.

The Prime Minister said, New Delhi will also help in setting up the Indira Gandhi High-tech Cyber Forensic Laboratory in Hanoi and a Vietnam-India English and IT Training Centre at the National Defence Academy of Vietnam.