Vietnamese Ambassador to India Ton Sinh Thanh speaks at the event. (Source: VNA) New Delhi (VNA) – TheEmbassy of Vietnam in India held a ceremony in New Delhi on January 18 to mark 45years of Vietnam – India diplomatic ties (January 7) and to welcome the LunarNew Year (Tet) festival.
The event was attended by India’s Ministerof State for External Affairs Mobashar Jawed Akbar, representatives from thehost country’s ministries, sectors and parliament, and the Embassies of thePhilippines, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Cuba and Bhutan in India, amongothers.
Addressing the opening ceremony,Vietnamese Ambassador to India Ton Sinh Thanh said since the establishment of Vietnam-Indiadiplomatic ties on January 7, 1972, the two nations’ relationship has experiencedstrong development. India has always been a great friend of Vietnam, Thanhsaid, quoting late Prime Minister Pham Van Dong as saying thatVietnam-India ties were as clear as a cloudless sky.
The two countries entered into astrategic partnership in 2007, and ever since, Vietnam and India have expandedcooperation in the five pillars of politics, national defence – security,economics, science-technology and culture-education.
The two nations’ leaders elevated thestrategic partnership to a comprehensive strategic partnership during the visitof Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Vietnam in 2016.
The ambassador highlighted that Indiais one of the 10 biggest trade partners of Vietnam, with bilateral trade valuereaching 5.5 billion USD in 2016. The figure is expected to reach 15 billionUSD by 2020. The country has invested in 130 projects in Vietnam, worth a totalof 700 million USD.
The Vietnamese diplomat expressed hisbelief that the Vietnam – India partnership will continue growing for peace,stability, cooperation, common wealth and development in Asia-Pacific and theworld.
Echoing Thanh’s opinion on theVietnam – India friendship, Minister Mobashar Jawed Akbar said the two nationsshared similarities in their fight against colonialism for nationalindependence. He expressed the belief that bilateral cooperation has hugepotential and will continue growing in the future, adding that the comprehensivestrategic partnership will be based on the two pillars of security andprosperity.
He expressed thanks to Vietnam forsupporting India’s “Act East”policy, and wished that Vietnam will serve as a bridge connecting India withASEAN nations.
Duringthe event, participants were treated to Vietnamese art and food.-VNA
VNA
