India and Vietnam will sign 12 agreements for cooperation in areas including defence and IT, to boost bilateral ties on Saturday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also announced a new line of credit of $500 million for Vietnam to facilitate deeper defence cooperation. He is the first Indian Prime Minister to visit the communist nation in 15 years.
The announcements were made on the second day of PM Modi's two-day bilateral visit to Vietnam, before he heads to China for the G-20 Summit.
Here's a short video of the ceremonial reception for PM @narendramodi at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi pic.twitter.com/h4FlGdLa0P
In a joint statement with Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang, PM Modi said:
We have agreed to deepen defence and security engagement. We are happy to announce new defence LoC of $500 million for facilitating deeper defence cooperation. Under Vietnam's leadership as ASEAN Coordinator for India, we will work towards a strengthened India-ASEAN partnership across all areas.India also upgraded its relationship with Vietnam from “strategic partnership” to “comprehensive strategic partnership” following delegation-level talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.
12 for togetherness!
India & Vietnam sign a dozen agreements for further strengthening the Strategic Partnership pic.twitter.com/Fu4Er17udQModi seeks facilitation of ongoing Indian projects and investments in Vietnam as a bilateral trade target of $15 million by 2020 was set.
India has also offered a grant of $5 million to set up a software park at the Telecommunications University in Nha Trang.
Vietnam has shown a keen interest in air and defense production. India's L&T will build offshore high-speed patrol boats for Vietnamese Coast Guards, while an agreement was signed on programme of cooperation in UN peacekeeping matters.
Indian Navy and Vietnam Navy will cooperate in sharing of white shipping information.
In addition, MoU between Vietnamese Academy of Social Science and Indian Council of World Affairs, MoU between BIS and STAMEQ for mutual recognition of standards, agreement on setting up of sustainable IT Infra for advanced IT training and protocol between Vietnam and India on celebrating 2017 as ‘The Year Of Friendship' were also signed
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Ahead of PM Modi's Visit, Vietnam Hopes for Economic Gains
Modi's Vietnam-China Trip: 1 Week, 3 Summits Including G-20With inputs from PTI, IANS.
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