Manila (VNA) – Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc hasunderscored the need to continue fostering and deepening ASEAN’s relations withIndia, focusing on optimizing projects on narrowing development gaps,strengthening connectivity and people-to-people contacts and broadeningcooperation areas.
Addressing the 15th ASEAN-India Summit on November 14 as part of the 31st ASEAN Summit in Manila, the Philippines, on behalf of ASEAN leaders, Phuc saidASEAN expects the support of India to the building of the ASEAN Community andthe promotion of the association’s central role in shaping the regionalarchitecture.
The PM also affirmed the determination of Vietnam, as the coordinatingcountry of the ASEAN-India relations, to work with other ASEAN countries andIndia to successfully organise the upcoming summit commemorating theASEAN-India ties.
Leaders of ASEAN and India showed delight at their affiliation outcomesrecently, especially the effective implementation of their plan of actions forthe 2016-2020 period and cooperation in prioritised areas in the 2016-2018period.
They reaffirmed commitments to continue fostering economic, tradecollaboration and connectivity, people-to-people contact, cooperation inscience-technology, education, culture, natural disaster relief, and narrowingdevelopment gap.
They lauded Vietnam’s initiative to organise the ASEAN-India conferenceon blue economy in Nha Trang city from November 24-25. ASEAN leaders will alsoattend a summit commemorating the 25th anniversary of theASEAN-India relations and the 69th India Republic Day on January25-26, 2018 in New Delhi.-VNA
VNA