The Vietnamese delegation in a meeting with Secretary (East) of the Ministry of External Affairs Vijay Thakur Singh (Photo: VNA) New Delhi (VNA) – Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretaryof Phu Yen province’s Party Committee and Chairman of the provincial People’sCouncil Huynh Tan Viet led a delegation from the Vietnamese Party CentralCommittee to pay a working visit to India on October 15-19.
The visit, made at the invitation of the Indian Government and in the frameworkof the Memorandum of Understanding inked between the two sides in 2013, aimedto promote relations between the Communist Party of Vietnam and politicalparties in India. Besides, it is expected to boost the comprehensive strategicpartnership between the two nations across the fields of politics, security –defence, economy – trade, culture and tourism.
During their stay, the delegation paid a courtesy visit to General Secretary ofBharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Ram Madhav, General Secretary of the CommunistParty of India (CPI) Doraisamy Raja, and representatives of the Communist Partyof India (Marxist). In addition, they had meetings with Minister of Commerceand Industry Shri Piyush Goyal and Secretary (East) of the Ministry of ExternalAffairs Vijay Thakur Singh.
At the events, the Vietnamese delegation thanked the Indian Government,political parties and people for supporting Vietnam in the struggle forindependence in the past, and the current national construction. They called onthe Indian side to be more active in supporting Vietnam’s stance in the EastSea issue, and find a suitable place to put up President Ho Chi Minh’s statuein New Delhi.
The Vietnamese side suggested India remove bottlenecks in the bilateral trade,including India’s restriction of importation of materials for incense stickmaking and anti-dumping investigation on several Vietnamese products, amongothers.
The Indian side, for its part, expressed wishes to enhance relations with theVietnamese Party and Government, and described Vietnam as a top priority inIndia’s Look East Policy.
They said delegation exchange through the MoU will create a trustworthypolitical basis to develop the comprehensive strategic partnership in a deeperand more practical fashion.
The Vietnamese delegation also visited some cultural and historical relic sitesin India to learn experiences in preservation and restoration work as well astourism development./.