A ceremony was held in Hanoi on Jan. 6 to mark the 40 th anniversary of Vietnam-India diplomatic ties (Jan. 7) and the 5 th anniversary of the establishment of a strategic partnership between the two countries.

Addressing the function, Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh affirmed Vietnam ’s consistent policy of attaching importance and giving priority to developing the traditional friendship and comprehensive strategic partnership with India .

He expressed his pleasure that since its establishment in 2007, the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries has been developed in a practical and efficient manner on the basis of key pillars – politics, national defence and security, economy and trade, culture and human resource training.

He expressed his belief that the two sides will further boost those ties for the benefits of the two peoples and for peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world.

For the Indian side, Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed said that in recent years, economic and trade relations have developed rapidly and the two countries have set a target of 7 billion USD in bilateral trade turnover by 2015.

In addition, relations between the two countries in many other fields, including agriculture, science and technology, education and resource development are also expanding. Cooperation in national defence and security between the two sides are also seeing strong development.

Recently, India set up a human resource centre for information and communication technology sector in Hanoi , with an investment of 2 million USD.

The minister said that in 2012, India plans to double scholarships for technical and economic cooperation for Vietnam from 75 to 150, set up an English language centre in Hanoi and a vocational training centre in Ho Chi Minh City./.