Secretary (East) of the Ministry of External Affairs of India Preeti Saran (Photo: VNA) New Delhi (VNA) – India greatly values its relations with Vietnam, Secretary (East) of theMinistry of External Affairs of India Preeti Saran has said in an interviewgranted to the Vietnam News Agency on the relations between the two countries.
The full text of the interview is as follows:
Q: 45 years sincethe establishment of the diplomatic relation (7th January 1972 - 7th January2017), India - Vietnam relations have strongly developed in various areas, frompolitics, economic, trade and investment areas to security, defense and cultureones. What do you value the current cooperation ties between two countries?
Secretary PreetiSaran: India greatly values its relations with Vietnam. India and Vietnam sharetraditionally close relations that have their roots in our freedom struggle ledby our founding fathers, Mahatma Gandhi and Ho Chi Minh and which have beennurtured by successive generations of leaders. The friendship and solidaritybetween our peoples has been steadfast during the period of Vietnam’s nationalstruggle for independence, the heroic effort at national reunification andtoday’s phase of national reconstruction. Today, we can proudly say that ourrelations are marked by strong trust, mutual understanding and convergence ofviews on various international issues and the regional security situation inAsia.
There has been anall round progress made in development cooperation and assistance, politicalexchanges, defense and security cooperation, human resource development,commercial and economic ties, cultural exchanges and scholarships.
The Official Visitof our Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi to Vietnam during 2-3 September 2016 atthe invitation of His Excellency Mr. Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Prime Minister of theSocialist Republic of Vietnam can be seen in this context. This was the firstPrime Ministerial visit from India after a gap of fifteen years and a landmarkvisit where our leaders decided to elevate our relations from StrategicPartnership to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. This is testimony to theimportance our respective leaders attach to our bilateral relations.
2017 is indeed ayear of many milestones in our relationship with Vietnam and in the evolutionof our Took East and Act East Policies. As you know, with the two countriescelebrating the 45th Anniversary of the establishment of diplomaticrelations and the 10th Anniversary of our Strategic Partnership,2017 has been declared the “Year of Friendship” and under this we hope tocelebrate all aspects of our relations by organizing cultural activities,seminars, conferences, workshops, food festivals, exhibitions and road shows,etc. As Vice Minister of External Affairs, my agenda would be to furtherconsolidate and elevate bilateral relations. We hope to do this through highlevel exchange of visits, including between political parties, our twogovernments, legislatures and States and Provinces of the two countries. Itwould also be the endeavour of Ministry of External Affairs to try and ensureregular convening of the established dialogue mechanisms and effectiveimplementation of the agreements signed between our two countries and thevision set out by our leaders for the relationship.
Q: The economiccooperation is one of the five pillars of the strategic partnership between twocountries. What do you think about the cooperation between two countries inthis field, especially since the two sides have just upgraded the strategicpartnership to the comprehensive strategic partnership during Prime MinisterNarendra Modi's visit to Hanoi in early September? What should India andVietnam do to tap our strengths to promote economic and trade cooperation?
Secretary PreetiSaran: During Prime Minister NarendraModi’s visit to Vietnam in September 2016, he and Prime Minister Nguyen XuanPhuc took the historic step to elevate the relationship to that of “StrategicComprehensive Partnership”, and identified enhanced economic engagement as astrategic priority. Cooperation in defence industry, energy and energyconservation, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, engineering, agriculture and foodprocessing, garment and textiles, leather and infrastructure projects arespecific focus areas. PM Modi during his visit to Vietnam also announced a newDefence Line of Credit for Vietnam of USD 500 million for facilitating deeperdefence industry cooperation.
A series ofagreements have been signed ever since in the area of healthcare, mutualrecognition of standards, finance, information technology and space cooperationthat have created good frameworks for enhancing economic cooperation.
The bilateral tradeis growing at a healthy pace and is currently around USD 8 billion; our leadershave set a trade target of USD 15 billion by 2020, and both sides are committedto achieving it. India is keen on increasing its investments in Vietnam, whichis currently over USD 1.2 billion, and would be tripling in a few years oncesome large infrastructure investments reach fruition. We would similarly liketo invite Vietnamese business and industry to look at India as an attractiveinvestment destination.
Though India andVietnam share excellent political ties, the economic relations have not keptpace. In order to realize the trade target of USD 15 billion by 2020 set by ourleaders, we need to actively collaborate to enhance exchange of tradedelegations, reach out to business and industry and encourage mutualinvestments which will boost trade. In November 2016, we hosted a high leveltrade delegation of CEOs led by the President of the Confederation of IndianIndustry (CII).
We will also focuson trade promotion activities in textiles, pharmaceuticals, medical devices,gems and jewellery, commercial vehicles, auto components, machinery andequipment, leather products and footwear.
Tariff andnon-tariff barriers, including some technical barriers to trade, remainsignificant impediments to development of bilateral trade and they are beingaddressed by both sides. India and Vietnam have agreed to facilitate tradeflows between the two countries by minimizing the application of tradebarriers, and step by step removal/abolishment of trade barriers in accordancewith the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation betweenASEAN and India. While India has already lowered or eliminated tariffs on manycommodities under the India-ASEAN FTA in goods, Vietnam has two years beforesuch tariff reduction/elimination takes place. We believe that bilateral tradewill receive a strong boost when tariffs for many commodities are eliminated orsignificantly reduced under this agreement.
The November 2016visit of the CEO Delegation led by President of CII had generated immenseinterest in investing in renewable energy. Many Indian companies are indiscussions with Vietnamese partners and provincial authorities for undertakinglarge scale solar and wind energy projects. We are optimistic that new projectsin renewable energy would be starting shortly, especially because Indiancompanies have unique expertise, scale and experience in renewable sector dueto Prime Minister Modi’s decision to install 175 GW of renewable power of which100 GW is solar and 60 GW is wind energy.
Energy Conservationis another potential area in our bilateral economic cooperation. A MW saved isa MW produced at a significantly cheaper cost. During the recent visit of theChairwoman of the National Assembly, Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan to India, an MOUwas signed between the Energy Efficiency Service Limited (EESL) and EVN. EESLis in touch with several provinces for providing various energy efficiencysolutions based on its experience of replacing 197 million ordinary bulbs withLED bulbs saving over USD 1.5 billion and 25,000 million KWh annually andcausing a significant reduction in Carbon Dioxide emissions.
In garment andtextile, India and Vietnam share complementary strengths. Vietnam is strong inspinning and garments and is trying to diversify the sources of imports offabrics, fibers, yarns and other accessories; India is a potential market tosource these inputs.
Science andTechnology cooperation is a very important sector. Our governments are closelycollaborating to realise the peaceful uses of space and atomic energytechnology and both sides have signed agreements in this regard during thevisit of Prime Minister Modi to Vietnam in September 2016 and visit ofChairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan to India last month. We are also keen to promotegreater interaction between our companies in information technology andsoftware services, design and engineering services and in research anddevelopment.
Q: With the rapidreform and development, India is emerging as a leading economic, politicalpower and playing an increasingly important role in maintaining the peace,stability and prosperity in Asia and Pacific as well as the world. In thecontext of the disputes in the South China Sea (East Sea) complicatedlydeveloping, Vice Foreign Minister, can you tell Indian's view in resolving suchdisputes?
Secretary PreetiSaran: Our position on the East Sea has been consistent. As can be seen in theJoint Statement issued during Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Vietnam inSeptember 2016, we reiterate our desire and determination to work together withVietnam to maintain peace, stability, growth and prosperity in Asia and beyond.Noting the Award issued on 12 July 2016 of the Arbitral Tribunal constitutedunder the Annex VII to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea(UNCLOS), we reiterate our support for peace, stability, security, safety andfreedom of navigation and over flight, and unimpeded commerce, based on theprinciples of international law, as reflected notably in the UNCLOS. We call onall states to resolve disputes through peaceful means without threat or use offorce and exercise self-restraint in the conduct of activities that couldcomplicate or escalate disputes affecting peace and stability, respect thediplomatic and legal processes, fully observe the Declaration on the conduct ofparties in the South China Sea (DOC) and soon finalize the Code of Conduct(COC). We also recognize that the sea lanes of communication passing throughthe South China Sea are critical for peace, stability, prosperity anddevelopment. India, as a State Party to the UNCLOS, urges all parties to showutmost respect for the UNCLOS, which establishes the international legal orderof the seas and oceans.
Q: To promotecooperation with eastern countries, including ASEAN countries, India hasshifted from the “Look East” to the “Act East” policy, what do you think aboutVietnam's position in this policy?
Secretary PreetiSaran: Government of India has placed the new context and vision of thebilateral relationship in the framework of India’s “Look East” and “Act East”approaches of which Vietnam is an important pillar, and that of ASEAN, which isimportant to us in terms of history, geography and the economic and strategicspace that we share. We welcome and appreciate the significant contribution ofVietnam to the ASEAN-India engagement in its capacity as ASEAN Coordinator forIndia for the period of 2015-2018. Both our countries are committed tostrengthening our partnership within the India-ASEAN and Mekong-GangaCooperation frameworks. We value the cooperation and coordination between ourtwo countries at regional and international fora.-VNA
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