Indian high-ranking military officers have affirmed that India will continue to assist Vietnam in military training, human resource development and sharing of information.

Indian Defence Secretary Shashi Kant Sharma and Minister of State for Defence Pallam Raju made the commitments during separate meetings with Vietnamese Deputy Defence Minister Lieut. Gen. Nguyen Chi Vinh, who accompanied President Truong Tan Sang on a state-level visit to India from Oct. 11-13.

Lieut. Gen. Vinh spoke highly of traditional friendly relations between Vietnam and India, including bilateral cooperation in national defence.

He took the occasion to thank the Indian Government and army for their assistance to Vietnam in personnel training, describing it a bright spot in the two countries’ defence relations

Both Sharma and Raju said India will actively participate in regional security forums, particularly the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and the ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting Plus (ADMM+), of which India is a member.

Also within the framework of President Sang’s visit to India, Vietnamese Finance Minister Vuong Dinh Hue held talks with his India counterpart, Pranab Mukherjee.

Minister Mukherjee said the India Government will increase its provision of official development assistance (ODA) to Vietnam, apart from the sum of 100 million USD announced at the meeting between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang.

India will consider the provision of soft credits for Vietnam to develop its infrastructure as well as credits for Vietnamese businesses to import equipment and technologies from India, he said.

Both ministers agreed to foster cooperation between the two Finance Ministries, particularly in customs, taxation, budget and public debt management./.