The upcoming visit by General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Nguyen Phu Trong to India is expected to help expand and deepen the strategic partnership between the two countries.

The State visit from November 19-22 was made at the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Mamohan Singh. It aims to help Vietnam strengthen its close relationship with India and expand ties between the Vietnamese Party and Indian political parties, the two national assemblies and peoples.

Such relations were built by late President Ho Chi Minh and late Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and treasured by following leaders.

The visit also means to intensify the pillars of the strategic partnership that has existed between both sides since 2007.

The Indian Government considers Vietnam a key component of its “Look East” policy. In addition to sharing a lot of similarities and mutual benefits, both nations also support and cooperate with each other regularly as well as exchange views on various issues at regional and multilateral forums.

As of June this year, India was ranked 30th out of 101 nations and territories investing in Vietnam, with 73 valid projects worth over 253 million USD in the Southeast Asian nation.

Two-way trade was recorded at 2.2 billion USD in the first five months of this year and is expected to hit 7 billion USD by 2015.

Vietnam and India established their diplomatic ties in 1972 and elevated their relations to a strategic partnership in 2007.-VNA