Top legislator’s India visit expected to deepen comprehensive strategic partnership

Hanoi (VNA) – The upcoming visit to India by Vietnamese National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue is expected to contribute to further deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries.

Vietnam and India established diplomatic ties in 1972 and elevated the relationship to the comprehensive strategic partnership in 2016. They are working to implement an action programme materialising the partnership for 2021-2023.

The two sides have maintained all-level delegation exchanges, including the visits to Vietnam by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September 2016, President Ram Nath Kovind in November 2018 and Vice President Venkaiah Naidu in May 2019. Meanwhile, then NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan visited India in December 2016, then Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc attended the ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit in January 2018, and then President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh paid a visit to India in February 2020.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the two sides have engaged in online talks. NA Chairman Hue also met with Speaker of the Lok Sabha (House of Representatives) of India Om Birla as part of his trip to attend the fifth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament (WCSP5) in Vienna, Austria last September.

India is one of the 10 biggest partners of Vietnam, with two-way trade reaching 9.67 billion USD last year, and nearly 11 billion USD as of October 2021.

By October, India ranked 26th out of 140 countries and territories investing in Vietnam with 310 projects worth some 910 million USD, mainly in energy, mining, agricultural processing, sugar, tea, coffee, agricultural chemicals, IT and auto spare parts.

Vietnam also invested in nine projects in India with total capital of nearly 6.03 million USD.

Progress has been made in collaboration in education-training, tourism and other spheres like agriculture, energy, development cooperation, science-technology, information and communications, natural resources and environment.

Notably, the two countries have provided mutual support during the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the achievements, they are closely coordinating to organise activities celebrating the 50th anniversary of the bilateral diplomatic ties in 2022.

Over the past years, the bilateral parliamentary ties have been consolidated, significantly contributing to enhancing the traditional friendship and comprehensive strategic partnership.

The Vietnamese legislature and India’s Lok Sabha (House of Representatives) signed a cooperation agreement on the occasion of the visit to India by then NA Chairwoman Ngan in 2016.

NA Chairman Hue’s visit is made at the invitations of Speaker of the Lok Sabha (House of Representatives) Om Birla, and Chairman of the Rajya Sabha (Upper House) Venkaiah Naidu.

Chairman of the NA Committee for External Relations Vu Hai Ha said during the visit, the two sides are scheduled to talk issues regarding COVID-19 vaccines and drugs.

The visit will offer a good opportunity for leaders of the two countries to seek solutions to strengthen the bilateral relations, he said./.