Vietnam National Assembly president visits India to celebrate 5 years of comprehensive strategic partnership

India’s ties with its key SE Asian partner Vietnam will receive a boost when the country’s National Assembly President Vuong Dinh Hue visits New Delhi this week (Dec 15-19) with the two sides planning to sign MoUs in the areas of pharmaceutical, healthcare, science and technology, communication and environment and seeking to strengthen energy ties.

Hue will also attend the celebrations marking five years of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership besides attending a business forum aimed at inviting Indian investments, ET has learnt.

Vietnam and India relation has prospered in all fields including inter- parliament cooperation. In this context the visit is aimed at expanding new prospects for legislative cooperation, an important field of the bilateral Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, strengthening cooperation between the two countries at multilateral forums. The visit will also focus on setting areas, building rules and configuring termination into rule-based multimodal methods.



It is expected that during the visit, the two sides will officially announce the extension for India's ONGC to explore and exploit oil and gas in the South China Sea, through which it is possible to clearly indicate India’s support to play a greater role in the South China Sea.

With Hue’s visit the two countries will have positive breakthroughs. The two countries are now hoping to expand their economic partnership riding on Vietnam’s economic success and market opportunities. Officials from both sides are exploring new avenues of economic partnership. Vietnam is well positioned by the South China Sea, near developed markets like Japan and Singapore, as well as rapidly growing markets like Thailand.

It may be recalled that Vietnam’s National Assembly and Hue in particular have played critical role in handling pandemic as well as in consolidating Vietnam’s position in the UN Security Council as a non-permanent member. Hue has taken special care in fighting Covid in Vietnam, a country which has stood out in its response against the pandemic. Vietnam has made a mark in the UNSC as well.

The celebration of 50 years of creation of diplomatic ties in 2022 and fifth anniversary of the Indo-Vietnam Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2021 are testimony to the growing partnership between New Delhi and Hanoi. At the virtual summit held last December PM Narendra Modi had said that Vietnam is an important pillar of India's Act East policy and a vital partner of its Indo-Pacific Vision. On that occasion the two sides signed seven pacts across key sectors including defence and energy and released a joint vision for peace and prosperity eyeing to contribute to the South China Sea region’s stability.

India as an emerging global power should play an important role in maintaining Freedom of Navigation and Freedom of Overflight in the South China Sea (SCS) region amid China’s territorial claims.

It may be recalled that relations between India and Vietnam were elevated to the level of ‘Strategic Partnership’ during the visit of Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to India in July 2007. In 2016, during Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Vietnam, bilateral relations were further elevated to a “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership”, a status that Vietnam shares with only two other countries – Russia and China.

From a meagre $ 200 million in the year 2000, bilateral trade between India and Vietnam has seen steady growth over the years. According to Indian statistics, during the Financial Year (FY) April 2020 – March 2021, bilateral trade between India and Vietnam reached $ 11.12 billion, with Indian exports to Vietnam amounting to $ 4.99 billion and Indian imports from Vietnam at $ 6.12 billion.

In Financial Year 2020-21, for India, Vietnam was the 15th largest trading partner globally and the 4th largest within ASEAN, following Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. For Vietnam, on the other hand, India was the 10th largest trading partner globally. India has a long-standing development partnership with Vietnam that has made positive contributions towards capacity building, Sustainable Development Goals and socioeconomic development of Vietnam. India has also been providing assistance to Vietnam within the ASEAN framework.

India’s investments in Vietnam are estimated at around $ 1.9 billion including investments routed through third countries. According to Vietnam’s Foreign Investment Agency, as of April 2021, India has 299 valid projects with total invested capital of $ 909.5 million, ranking 26th among countries and territories investing in Vietnam. Major sectors of Indian investment are energy, mineral exploration, agro-processing, sugar, tea, coffee manufacturing, agro-chemicals, IT and auto components. Vietnam’s Investments in India 10. As of 2020, Vietnam has six investment projects in India with a total estimated investment of $ 28.55 million, primarily in the areas of pharmaceuticals, information technology, chemicals and building materials.

Today Vietnam is an economic success story and celebrating 35 years of Doi Moi policy which contributed to enhancing its position in international arena under the leadership of the ruling Communist Party. Since the economic reforms of Doi Moi in 1986, at which time Vietnam had a GDP per capita of around $422, Vietnam entered middle-income status in 2010 and now has a GDP per capita of $2,785.

Today Vietnam is a manufacturing powerhouse, particularly in the production of smartphones and computer parts. The economic growth in Vietnam has created a rising middle-class that is both tech-savvy and creative. Vietnam’s policymakers are pushing forward with the development of the digital economy, with ambitious goals of making it account for 30% of GDP by 2030.

The visit of Hue will contribute to consolidating the India - Vietnam comprehensive strategic partnership, for the benefit of the people of two countries, as well as for peace, stability and prosperity in the region. Vietnam is increasingly showing itself as a leading partner and a pillar of India's Act East policy.