Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc holds talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi

That same evening, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc held talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

At the talks, Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc to India to attend the ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit and the 69th Republic Day of India; highly appreciated Vietnam's role as Coordinator of ASEAN-India relations, which has actively contributed to the development of increasingly close relations between India and ASEAN in recent times and the success of this Summit.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc congratulated India on its important achievements in the fields of economy, society, defense, science and technology, etc.; he believed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would continue to lead India successfully on the path of prosperous and sustainable development, further enhancing India's role and position in the region and the world.

The two Prime Ministers expressed their satisfaction with the strong development of bilateral relations, especially since the establishment of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's official visit to Vietnam in September 2016. The two Prime Ministers assessed the results of commemorative activities during the 2017 Friendship Year, which have contributed to consolidating and promoting cooperation in various fields, especially in culture, tourism and people-to-people exchange.

Assessing defense and security cooperation as an important pillar in the bilateral relationship, the two Prime Ministers proposed to further strengthen reliable and effective cooperation in these areas, and directed relevant ministries and branches to pay attention to removing obstacles in the cooperation process. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc hoped that India would continue to support Vietnam in capacity building training, English language, defense technology transfer and defense credit provision.

Prime Minister Modi welcomed the two sides to continue exchanging delegations and maintaining defense and security cooperation mechanisms; and suggested that the two sides actively implement a number of agreed defense credit packages.

The two sides agreed that two-way trade turnover has grown rapidly but is not commensurate with the potential and strengths of the two countries as well as other aspects of cooperation; bilateral investment remains limited. To achieve the target of 15 billion USD in turnover by 2020, the two Prime Ministers proposed that the Trade Subcommittee of the two countries meet early in 2018 to study and find solutions, including promoting research on aviation and maritime connectivity to shorten transportation time, reduce costs and increase the competitiveness of goods of the two countries; limit and gradually remove trade barriers, creating favorable conditions for import and export goods of the two countries.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc welcomed and pledged to create favorable conditions for Indian businesses to strengthen economic and trade cooperation, especially in areas where India has strengths and Vietnam has demand such as infrastructure, information technology, mechanical engineering, energy, industrial park construction, high-tech agriculture, etc.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc highly appreciated the non-refundable development assistance (ODA) packages and preferential credits that India has provided to Vietnam in recent times; and thanked India for continuing to provide scholarships to Vietnam.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India will continue to support capacity building for Vietnam through the International Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) Program, the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation (MGC), projects under the Small, Quick Impact Projects (QIPs) Fund; actively consider increasing long-term scholarships for Vietnamese students studying at some prestigious universities in India as well as helping Vietnam build more vocational training centers.

The two sides highly appreciated and agreed to continue to closely coordinate and support each other at multilateral forums, especially within the framework of the United Nations. In its role as the coordinator of ASEAN-India relations for the 2015-2018 period, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said that Vietnam is ready to coordinate with India to further strengthen all-round relations with ASEAN.

Regarding the East Sea issue, the two sides agreed on the importance of peace, stability, safety, security and freedom of navigation and aviation, peaceful settlement of disputes, respect for international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and promoting the building of an effective, appropriate and legally binding COC.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc highly appreciated India’s stance on the East Sea issue and welcomed India’s continued cooperation with Vietnam in oil and gas exploration and exploitation in Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone and continental shelf in the East Sea; he said Vietnam is ready to coordinate with India and ASEAN countries to promote maritime security cooperation at important regional conferences.

After the talks, the two Prime Ministers witnessed the handover ceremony of cooperation agreements including the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Information and Communications of Vietnam and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of India on cooperation in the field of information and broadcasting and the Agreement between the National Remote Sensing Department and the Indian Space Research Organization on the implementation of the Project "Construction of a Satellite Image Detection and Reception Station and a Satellite Image Data Processing Center"./.