General Ngo Xuan Lich paid an official friendship visit to India

At the invitation of Mr. Manohar Parrikar, Minister of Defense of the Republic of India, General Ngo Xuan Lich, Politburo member, Minister of Defense led a high-ranking military delegation of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam on an official friendly visit to the Republic of India from December 4-7.

On the afternoon of December 5, at the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of India, Indian Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar presided over the welcoming ceremony for Minister Ngo Xuan Lich and his delegation. Immediately after the welcoming ceremony, the two sides entered into talks.

The Indian Defense Minister warmly welcomed Minister Ngo Xuan Lich on his official visit to India, saying that this visit will contribute to strengthening the friendly relations between the people and armies of the two countries.

The Indian Defense Minister expressed that Vietnam has an important position and role in the region. India wishes to strengthen comprehensive cooperation with Vietnam, including in the defense sector.

Minister Ngo Xuan Lich thanked Minister Manohar Parrikar for the warm and friendly reception for the delegation and said that this visit to India is of great significance in the context of the two countries having just upgraded their relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

This is also one of the activities towards the 45th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations and 10 years of establishing the Vietnam - India strategic partnership.

Minister Ngo Xuan Lich expressed that India is a country with a rich cultural tradition and an important role and position in the region and the world. Vietnam attaches importance to comprehensive cooperation with India, especially in the field of defense.

Taking the defense relationship between the two countries to a new level will actively contribute to building the comprehensive strategic partnership that the two sides' senior leaders agreed to in September 2016.

Regarding the bilateral relationship, the two ministers agreed that Vietnam and India have a historical bond. The relationship between the two countries is a traditional friendship that was jointly nurtured by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and President Ho Chi Minh, along with generations of leaders and people of the two countries, and is growing better and better.

India has always been a trusted, close and close friend of Vietnam. On behalf of the Government and people of Vietnam, Minister Ngo Xuan Lich thanked the Government and people of India for their valuable support and assistance to the Vietnamese people in the past resistance war for independence and the current renovation process.

Minister Manohar Parrikar congratulated Vietnam on its remarkable socio-economic development and the Vietnam People's Army for always upholding its heroic tradition in fighting and building the country.

According to Minister Ngo Xuan Lich, India considers Vietnam a pillar in its “Act East” policy, and in return, Vietnam always supports India’s policy and is ready to act as a bridge for India to develop relations with countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), while contributing more actively to maintaining stability in this region.

The two ministers agreed that strengthening and enhancing the friendly and cooperative relations, including defense cooperation, between Vietnam and India is an objective requirement of the situation and in line with the interests and aspirations of the people of the two countries, contributing to peace, stability and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and the wider region, in which India plays a very important role.

The upgrading of the Strategic Partnership to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership reflects the extensive development in the bilateral relationship, in which defense cooperation has become an important pillar of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the two countries.

Looking back over the past time, the two ministers were satisfied with the results of defense cooperation, especially the fact that both sides have seriously and actively implemented cooperation contents according to signed agreements.

Cooperation between military branches and services is promoted, and cooperation areas are constantly expanded and deepened, such as: Training; Peacekeeping; Strategic research; Coordinating stances at multilateral forums...

To achieve these results, the two Ministers said that cooperation mechanisms such as the Deputy Ministerial-level Defense Policy Dialogue, the Bilateral Defense Cooperation Group Meeting, the Naval Staff Officer Consultation... have truly brought into play positive effects.

In fact, after Minister Manohar Parrikar's visit to Vietnam in June 2016, the authorities of both sides actively coordinated and implemented many contents that the two Ministers agreed upon.

The Vietnam People's Navy and the Indian Navy have signed a Technical Agreement on Sharing Non-military Maritime Information; the Vietnam Border Guard and L&T/India Company have successfully negotiated and signed a Contract for the construction of new patrol vessels and the transfer of technology for the construction of patrol vessels using a credit package of 100 million USD from the Government of India; the Peacekeeping Centers of the two countries have signed a Cooperation Program; a fleet of the Indian Coast Guard visited Vietnam and conducted a joint search and rescue exercise with the Vietnam Coast Guard in October 2016... The above results are an important basis for the authorities of the two countries to implement the following cooperation contents.

In the coming time, in order for the two sides to continue to effectively implement cooperation areas according to signed agreements, including the Joint Vision Statement on Vietnam-India Defense Relations for the 2015-2020 period, the two Ministers agreed to effectively implement the following issues:

Continue to maintain and enhance delegation exchanges at all levels; attach importance to maintaining exchanges of young officers between the two armies, because these exchanges will create a bond between the young generations of the two countries. In addition, it is necessary to continue promoting the Defense Policy Dialogue mechanism at the Deputy Minister level.

Further strengthen cooperation in the field of training. In the coming time, India will continue to help Vietnam train officers in a number of specialties that Vietnam needs. Vietnam is also ready to receive an unlimited number of Indian students to study Vietnamese and attend courses for international senior officers at the National Defense Academy.

Regarding cooperation between the armed forces and services, the two sides continued to discuss needs and capabilities to come up with practical cooperation contents. In particular, they attached importance to naval cooperation issues, in order to be able to deploy joint activities on search and rescue at sea, practice the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea (CUES)...

Regarding the defense industry, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaffirmed India's interest in promoting defense industry cooperation with Vietnam and will support new credit to implement cooperation projects in this field, including the 500 million USD credit package that Prime Minister Modi announced to further promote cooperation in the defense industry between the two countries.

The two Ministers agreed on the implementation method, assigning the competent agencies of the two sides to promptly complete the necessary procedures to implement it in accordance with Vietnam's needs on the basis of signed documents.

At the end of the talks, at the headquarters of the Indian Ministry of Defense, General Ngo Xuan Lich and Mr. Manohar Parrikar witnessed the Commander of the Vietnam Air Defense - Air Force and the Chairman of the Committee of Chiefs of Staff, concurrently Commander of the Indian Air Force, sign the Cooperation Program between the two forces.

Before the talks, Minister Ngo Xuan Lich laid a wreath at the Martyrs' Memorial in New Delhi. Minister Ngo Xuan Lich also visited and encouraged the staff of the Vietnamese Embassy in India. Vietnamese Ambassador to India Ton Sinh Thanh informed the Minister about the preliminary situation of Vietnam-India relations in recent years.

When talking to the officers and staff of the Embassy, ​​the Minister informed about some features of the recent defense diplomacy work in general and the Vietnam - India defense diplomacy work in particular.

General Ngo Xuan Lich emphasized: In the coming time, implementing the agreements on defense foreign relations with India, there may be many military officers studying and working in India, so it is necessary for the officers and staff of the Vietnamese Embassy in India to help so that the military officers can complete their tasks well.

Also on the afternoon of December 5, Vietnam and India held a roundtable conference on defense industry cooperation between Indian enterprises and Vietnamese defense enterprises.

This roundtable conference is one of the steps to concretize the agreements signed between the two countries' Defense Ministers, and at the same time increase mutual trust in the future cooperation process.

According to News