At the 12th Political Consultation between the foreign ministries of Vietnam and India. (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son on May 30 hosted a reception for Secretary (East) of the Indian Ministry of ExternalAffairs Saurabh Kumar, who has been inVietnam to co-chair the12th PoliticalConsultation and the 9th Strategic Dialogue between the two foreign ministries.
Duringthe meeting, Son congratulated India on its important achievements innational construction and development, COVID-19 prevention and control, and economicrecovery.
He suggestedthe two sides continue to work together to promote important cooperationpillars such as politics - diplomacy, defence - security, trade - investment,science - technology, culture and people-to-people exchange, especially tourismcooperation in the context that the two countries have opened their borders.
Forhis part, Kumar affirmed that India always considers Vietnam an important pillar inits "Act East" policy, and pledged to closely coordinate in furtherstepping up the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countriesin the time to come.
Sonasked Kumar to convey his invitation to Indian Minister of External Affairs S.Jaishankar to visit Vietnam and co-chair the 18th meeting of the Vietnam-India Joint Committee on Economic, Commercial, Scientificand Technological Cooperation, scheduled to take place in the secondhalf of 2022.
Thesame day morning, Vietnamese Standing Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Minh Vu and SaurabhKumar co-chaired the 12th Political Consultationand the 9th Strategic Dialogue between the two foreign ministries.
The two sides had frank and open discussions on bilateralcooperation, as well as on regional and international issues of common concern.
Theyagreed that the Vietnam – India comprehensive strategic partnership has continued to develop strongly in different fields. They noted with pleasure practical andeffective cooperation in defence – security, and two-way trade hitting 13.2billion USD in 2021, and is on track towards the target of 15 billion USD.
Vu suggested the two sides coordinate well to prepare for high-level visitsand cooperation mechanisms in the coming time, while highly evaluating India'ssupport in medical equipment and technology transfer for vaccine production,which has helped Vietnam overcome the COVID-19 pandemic.
He expressed his hope that the Indian side will continue to create favourable conditions forthe bilateral trade, and increase investment in Vietnam in the spheres of oil andgas, auto supporting industry, information technology, renewable energy, hi-techagriculture and innovation.
Kumar stressed that India always attaches importance to and wishes tocontinuously develop the comprehensive strategic partnership with Vietnam. He agreedto closely coordinate with ministries, sectors and localities of Vietnam to organisemeaningful activities to celebrate the 50th founding anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Thetwo sides expressed satisfaction and agreed to continue close coordination andmutual support at international and regional forums, especially at the UnitedNations and within the framework of ASEAN-India cooperation.
Regardingthe East Sea issue, the two sides agreed ꦉon the necessity to maintain peace, stability, cooperation, development and respect forinternational law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on theLaw of the Sea (UNCLOS), andrespect for sovereign and sovereign rights of countries and freedom right of avi✨ation and navigation./.
