New Delhi, May 11 (IANS) India-Vietnam ties have been making steady progress beyond the headlines with the elevation of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. Not just defence, the two nations are interested in boosting trade and finance as was showcased during Vietnamese President To Lam’s recent State Visit to India in May, a report has stated.

To Lam’s visit to New Delhi within the first month of being elected as Vietnam’s President demonstrates the strength of the partnership with India. The two nations have decided to increase trade and agreed on a new trade goal of USD 25 billion by 2030. The two nations will facilitate market access, including those for agricultural items, according to a report in The Secretariat.

India and Vietnam agreed to enhance the supply chains in areas of mutual interest. Vietnam has expressed its commitment to diversify its supply sources and importing more products from India to serve its domestic production and export needs. The two nations have agreed to explore ways to have a more conducive regulatory environment for facilitating ease of doing business for the firms of India and Vietnam, including in standards compliance certification.

Greater two-way investments must be encouraged to further bolster economic ties between India and Vietnam, particularly in the fields of manufacturing, logistics, renewable energy, smart agriculture, high-technology, transport, electric vehicles and information technology, healthcare, agriculture and agro-processing, aquaculture, tourism and hospitality and others. The two nations have decided to strengthen the linkages between startup ecosystems of India and Vietnam and encourage substantive cooperation among innovation centres, as per the report in The Secretariat.

India and Vietnam agreed to further strengthen cooperation in traditional and emerging areas of defence cooperation, including staff talks, joint exercises, defence policy dialogue, joint research and co-development of new defence technologies, increased port calls by naval vessels and Air Force aircraft, peacekeeping activities, information sharing, hydrography, defence exhibitions, capacity building, defence industrial cooperation, maritime security, maritime safety, and search and rescue operations, which will also contribute to greater stability in the wider Indo-Pacific region.

Security cooperation between India and Vietnam has been boosted to realise shared objectives in information sharing, cybersecurity, counter-terrorism and tackling high-tech crime, transnational crime, money laundering and online scams, the report stated further. The two nations agreed to strengthen cooperation in security sector, including promoting cooperation in training and capacity building for law enforcement officers, support for professional training, foreign language training, cybersecurity incident response skills, and United Nations Peacekeeping.

–IANS

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