Vietnamese Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong’s upcoming visit to India is expected to further strengthen and deepen the two countries’ relationship and their all-around cooperation.

Indian Ambassador to Vietnam Preeti Saran made the statement in an interview she granted to the Vietnam News Agency on the threshold of the Party chief’s visit to India scheduled for November 19-22.

“We are delighted and honoured to welcome Party General Secretary Trong to India,” the diplomat said.

Vietnam and India boast traditional cooperative ties and friendship which were fostered by President Ho Chi Minh and Prime Minister Jawaharlan Nehru, and nurtured by generations of leaders and people of the two countries, she said.
 
Recently, the relationship has been upgraded to a strategic partnership, the ambassador noted, adding that the two countries celebrated the 40th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties and the 5th anniversary of the strategic partnership in 2012.

Regarding measures to boost the strategic partnership, Ambassador Preeti Saran said Vietnam and India are joining hands in politics, national security and defence, economics, trade and investment, culture, science and technology, and both need to effectively extract each side’s potential to further their cooperation in these areas.

Highlighting the two countries’ strong economic and commercial cooperation, the diplomat said two-way trade exceeded 3.94 billion USD last year and hit nearly 2.3 billion USD in the first five months of this year. The figure is expected to reach seven billion USD in 2015, she said.

Vietnam and India still have a lot of potential for cooperation in such fields as garments and textiles, agriculture and agricultural product processing.

Vietnam has strength in garments while India is a huge producer of yarn and textiles, she said, expressing her hope for the establishment of joint venture cooperation between Indian companies and Vietnamese counterparts in agricultural product processing.

According to the ambassador, Indian businesses have shown their interest in investing in the Vietnamese market and vice versa.

“We would welcome Vietnamese companies to come to India and invest there,” she said.

The diplomat used the occasion to introduce India’s strength in oil and gas and suggested further cooperation in education between the two countries.

“We welcome more and more students from Vietnam to come and to study and work in India,” she affirmed.-VNA