The two sides also agreed on measures to bolster trade and economic cooperation, including elevating two-way trade from the current level of $15 billion
India and Vietnam agreed on Thursday to bolster defence cooperation for greater stability in the Indo-Pacific and to redouble efforts for freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea in the face of China’s assertive actions in the region.
The two sides finalised two dollar credit line agreements worth $300 million. (Narendra Modi | Official X account)
Following talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his visiting Vietnamese counterpart Pham Minh Chinh, the two sides also agreed on measures to bolster trade and economic cooperation, including elevating two-way trade from the current level of $15 billion, removing trade barriers and establishing an economic diplomacy dialogue.
Vietnam has emerged as a key partner for India among the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) for both trade and security issues. At the same time, Vietnam has looked to bolster its defence and security ties with India against the backdrop of its territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea.
Speaking at a media interaction following his talks with Chinh, Modi said the two sides had adopted a new Plan of Action to strengthen the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership established in 2016.
“New steps have been taken for cooperation in the field of defence and security…The agreement on a $300-million credit line will strengthen Vietnam’s maritime security,” Modi said.
Noting that Vietnam is an “important partner” in India’s “Act East” policy and Indo-Pacific vision, Modi said: “We share unison in our views regarding the Indo-Pacific region. We support evolution, not expansionism.”
Chinh said the two sides would redouble their efforts for peace, stability and security in the South China Sea, and for the peaceful settlement of disputes based on respecting international law, especially the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) of 1982.
“We agreed to share information and work together to make the South China Sea into the waters of peace, stability, friendship and cooperation, where safety, security and freedom of navigation and overflight is upheld,” he said, speaking in Vietnamese.
Chinh proposed that in the field of trade and investment, the two sides should double bilateral trade and investment over the next three to five years, for which a new mechanism would be needed. He said the two sides will establish an economic diplomacy dialogue at the level of deputy foreign minister.
Later in the day, while delivering the Sapru House Lecture at the Indian Council of World Affairs, Chinh suggested that the two countries should work on a new trade and economic cooperation agreement. He also invited greater Indian investments in key areas such as infrastructure, air and maritime connectivity, and oil and gas.
A joint statement issued by India and Vietnam said both sides had agreed on closer cooperation for removing trade barriers to enhance bilateral trade. They said the ongoing review of the Asean-India Trade in Goods Agreement should lead to a more user-friendly, simple and trade facilitative regime.
welcomed Indian investments in high technology, IT, manufacturing industries, textiles, semiconductors, renewable energy, while India sought investments from Vietnam in agriculture, aquaculture, wood processing, urban development, production of bamboo and forestry products, digital technology and e-vehicles, the joint statement said.
Modi and Chinh virtually inaugurated an Army Software Park at the Telecommunications University in Nha Trang that was built using an Indian grant of $5 million. The facility serves as an IT and foreign language centre and carries out igital transformation missions for the military and other sectors.
The two sides finalised two dollar credit line agreements worth $300 million. They also signed seven agreements, including memorandums of understanding (MoUs) between the Central Agricultural University in Imphal and the Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences for cooperation in agricultural research, and between Vietnam’s justice ministry and India’s law ministry on cooperation in the legal field.
Modi said the two sides also decided to emphasise cooperation on terrorism and cyber security, and an agreement had been reached between the central banks of the two countries for digital payment connectivity.
Chinh referred to India’s role as the voice of the Global South and said the country has an “increasingly greater role and status in the world” to contribute to peace, stability, development and prosperity. “The Asia [and] Indo-Pacific is a locomotive for growth for the world, but it is also where major power politics are taking place fiercely. Security challenges, especially non-traditional security challenges interspersed with each other are becoming fiercer,” he said.
“We are at a time where there is inter-twining of opportunities and challenges…but there are more challenges than there are opportunities,” Chinh added.
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