President Pranab Mukherjee will be discussing a horde of international, regional and bilateral matters with the top Vietnamese leadership to further strengthen the strategic partnership between
India and Vietnam. He left for Hanoi this noon, on a four-day state visit. Mr Mukherjee will meet his Vietnamese Counterpart Truong Tan Sang, General Secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party, Nguyen Phu Trong, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and the Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Sinh Hung during his stay in Vietnam capital, Hanoi.
He will also meet top leaders at Ho Chi Minh City during the later part of his visit. Giving further impetuous to the strategic partnership and expanding mutual cooperation to various new areas are expected to be high on the agenda during the talks.
India and Vietnam are likely to sign a number of agreements and Memoranda of Understanding including cooperation in strategic oil sector during the visit. Collaboration in key areas of security cooperation, Science Technology and People-to-People contacts and trade and investment are expected to take a forward step during the visit.
President Pranab Mukherjee’s visit to Vietnam gained utmost importance, especially when ASEAN integration picking up momentum and the regional interaction is getting deepened. Almost all top leaders of the two countries had paid mutual visits ever since the two countries laid strong foundations half a century ago for the diplomatic relations which gradually turned into strategic partnership. Now, the age-old trade and cultural linkages between the
two countries are set to be strengthened further with Vietnam offering two more Oil blocks to India’s ONGC Videsh for exploration activity in the South China Sea and India enhancing its collaboration to the fields like Defence, Human Resource Development, Technology, Science, Space and Agriculture. The cultural linkages between India and Vietnam are set to see new heights with the two sides closely working on rising people to people relations and connectivity. During the four day visit, the President will not only hold talks with top Vietnamese leadership but also visit several places of historic and cultural importance in Hanoi as well as in Ho Chi Minh City. The President is taking along with him an exceptionally rare cultural gift, a sapling of Bodhi tree, for which the Vietnamese are eager to receive.
A high level delegation including Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Devendra Pradhan and 6 MPs are accompanying him.
