Hanoi: Firming up their relationship at a higher level, India and Vietnam yesterday called for a peaceful, unfettered South China Sea, inked seven agreements including for direct Delhi-Hanoi flights and an extended line of credit for purchase of military equipment, as they set a target of $15bn bilateral trade by 2020 with a focus on tourism, garments and textiles, pharmaceuticals and agriculture.
The seven agreements were signed in the presence of visiting Indian President Pranab Mukherjee and his Vietnamese counterpart Truong Tan Sang.
Carrying on the momentum, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung is set to visit India in October at the head of a large business delegation to explore further opportunities.
“The value of the visit can be gauged by the fact that the (Indian) President met the entire gamut of Vietnamese leadership - the president, the prime minister, the chairman of the national assembly and the general secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party,” said Secretary (East) in the external affairs ministry Anil Wadhwa here.
Wadhwa said the President thanked Vietnamese leaders for the favourable investment climate for Indian investors, with the Tata’s thermal plants in south Vietnam being a “trend-setter”.
The joint communique following the talks said the two leaders agreed to strengthen and deepen bilateral cooperation on the basis of the strategic partnership.
They noted that the signing of the MoU for a Line of Credit of $100m for defence procurement extended by India to Vietnam would open new avenues for cooperation. Wadhwa said it would primarily be used by Hanoi for offshore patrol vessels while other equipment was yet to be identified and would be decided in talks.
India and Vietnam, in the communique, also reiterated their “desire and determination to work together to maintain peace, stability, growth and prosperity in Asia”.
The seven agreements included an air services agreement between Jet Airways and Air Vietnam while OVL, the overseas arm of oil major ONGC, and Petro Vietnam inked an agreement on exploring two additional blocks off Vietnam. The other agreements were on agriculture cooperation, animal health, customs cooperation, and on youth affairs and skill development.
After the inking of the agreement, Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal said the air services were going “to be very feasible, it is going to be very profitable”. He said the direct flights would start on November 5, and “booking has already started”.
A Boeing 737-800 will be pressed into service, said Goyal. Lauding Goyal’s venture, the Vietnamese president termed him a “giant bridge” between the two countries. President Mukherjee is on a four-day state visit to Vietnam that began on Sunday. IANS
