December 2009

India and Vietnam have traditionally close and cordial relations. India strongly supported and assisted Vietnam in its early days of post-war reconstruction and in its reform and economic development later. In 1954, India opened its consulate general in Ha Noi. In 1956, Vietnam opened its consulate general in New Delhi. Full diplomatic relations were established on 7th January, 1972.

Political relations:

Vietnam and India have always enjoyed good political relations and exchanged lots of high-level visits. Visits to India are those paid by Prime Minister Pham Van Dong in 1978, 1980, General Secretary of CPV Le Duan (1984), Nguyen Van Linh (1989), Do Muoi (1992), Chairman of the National Assembly of Vietnam (1994), Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet (1997), President Tran Duc Luong (1999), General Secretary of CPV Nong Duc Manh (2003), Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung (7/2007)  and most recently, visit by Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan (2009). During H.E.Mr Nong Duc Manh’s visit to India, two sides signed the Joint Declaration on the framework of comprehensive cooperation between India and Vietnam as they enter the 21^st century. During H.E.Mr Nguyen Tan Dung’s visit to India, two sides signed Joint Declaration to officially establish the strategic partnership between the two countries.

Vists to Vietnam are those paid by President Rajendra Prasad (in 1959), President R. Venkatraman (1991) Vice-President K.R. Narayanan (1993),  Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi (1985, 1988), Prime Minister Narsimha Rao (1994), Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee (2001), Speaker of Lok Sabha Shri Somnath Chatterjee (2007) and President Pratibha Patil (2008).

Economic cooperation and other cooperation relations.

The two countries established the India-Vietnam Joint Commission for Economic, Scientific & Technical Cooperation on 18th December, 1982. This is a very important mechanism for the two sides to review and promote cooperation in all fields, including the working out of an Action Plan for every 3 years. So far 13 meetings of the Joint Commission have taken place. Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem paid an official visit to India from February 26-28, 2007 and  co-chaired the 13th meeting of the Joint Commission.

- Bilateral trade has been growing rapidly from 72 million USD (1995) to over 1 billion USD in 2006 and 2,5 billion USD in 2008.. The main items of India’s exports to Vietnam are feed ingredients, mobiles, machinery and equipment, pharmaceuticals, plastic material, ordinary metals and steel of all kinds, medical ingredients, leather & textile material, cotton of all kinds, pesticides etc. The major items of Vietnam’s export to India are coal, pepper, electronic goods, cinnamon, rubber, machinery and equipments, fibric, etc

- India has registered FDI of 201,1 million USD in Vietnam till September 2009, the 32^nd out of total 88 countries and territories having investment in Viet Nam. Notably, many major enterprises from India like TATA, ESSAR etc have started to pay interest in doing business with Vietnam since 2007.

- Indian Credit Lines: Since 1976, India has extended a variety of Lines of Credit to Vietnam. In 2007, India announced a credit line of 45 million USD for Nam Chien Hydropower project and the agreement was finally signed in January 2008. India announced a new credit line of 19,5 million USD for Viet Nam.

- Education and training, India annually provides about 100 short and long-term scholarships in both bilateral and multilateral schemes (Mekong-Ganga Cooperation-MGC, Colombo Plan), in many fields especially agriculture, IT, English, remote-sensing. Increasing number of Vietnamese students have been going to India to study by self-finance because of reasonable fee and good teaching quality. In 2006-2007, Viet Nam granted 2 scholarships for Indian students to study Vietnamese.

- Science and Technology: An agreement on bilateral cooperation in Science & Technology was first concluded in 1976, and renewed in 1996. A Joint Committee on Science & Technology was constituted in 1997. The 7^th meeting of the Committee was held in Ha Noi in July 2008. India-Vietnam Protocol on Information Technology was signed in 1999. The project on assisting Viet Nam advanced human resource development financed by the grant of Government of India generated from the default interest on the commodity loan was utilized efficiently from 2001 and completed successfully in June.

- Cultural cooperation: Agreement on cultural cooperation signed between India and Viet Nam in 1976 serves as basis for formulating the periodically-renewed cultural exchange programmes (it was last renewed on the occasion of the visit to India by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in July 2007). Two sides maintain annual exchanges of artists.

- Defense and Security Cooperation have witnessed well steady development.

- India and Viet Nam have enjoyed close and good cooperation and coordination in regional and international fora. India supported Viet Nam’s candidature for non-permanent membership of the United Nation Security Council for the 208-2998 term. Viet Nam always supports India to strengthen its relation with ASEAN, its engagement with East Asian cooperation, support India’s candidature for permanent member of the United Nation Security Council when this organization is expanded.

- So far, two countries signed various important bilateral treaties and agreements, such as: Trade Agreement, Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection, Avoidance of Double Taxation Agreement, Consular Agreement, Culture Agreement, Tourism, Air Service, Agreement on Cooperation in Science & Technology. In addition, two sides have also signed many other MOU in specialized sectors. /.