Indian Defence SecretaryShashi Kant Sharma and Minister of State for Defence Pallam Raju madethe commitments during separate meetings with Vietnamese Deputy DefenceMinister Lieut. Gen. Nguyen Chi Vinh, who accompanied President TruongTan Sang on a state-level visit to India from Oct. 11-13.
Lieut.Gen. Vinh spoke highly of traditional friendly relations between Vietnamand India, including bilateral cooperation in national defence.
Hetook the occasion to thank the Indian Government and army for theirassistance to Vietnam in personnel training, describing it a bright spotin the two countries’ defence relations
Both Sharmaand Raju said India will actively participate in regional securityforums, particularly the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and the ASEANDefence Ministers Meeting Plus (ADMM+), of which India is a member.
Alsowithin the framework of President Sang’s visit to India, VietnameseFinance Minister Vuong Dinh Hue held talks with his India counterpart,Pranab Mukherjee.
Minister Mukherjee said the India Governmentwill increase its provision of official development assistance (ODA) toVietnam, apart from the sum of 100 million USD announced at the meetingbetween Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Vietnamese PresidentTruong Tan Sang.
India will consider the provision of softcredits for Vietnam to develop its infrastructure as well as credits forVietnamese businesses to import equipment and technologies from India,he said.
Both ministers agreed to foster cooperation between thetwo Finance Ministries, particularly in customs, taxation, budget andpublic debt management./.