New Delhi (VNA) – Indian scholars have sharedtheir views on the significance of the State visit to Vietnam from November18-20 by President Ram Nath Kovind, which they said will contribute tofostering the bilateral relations in various fields.

In an interview with the Vietnam News Agency’scorrespondents in New Delhi, Dr. Sonu Trivedi,Director of the Centre for Vietnamese Studies in Indiaand a senior lecturer of the Universityof Delhi, said the visit is the firstby President Kovind to a country located to the east of India.

The President has also selected Vietnam as the first countryin the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to visit during his officialtrip to Asia, she added.

The visit takes place four years after then President PranabMukherjee’s tour of Vietnam in 2014 and two years after Vietnam and Indiaelevated their relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership during thetrip to Vietnam by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

President Kovind will be the first head of state of Indiaand the second foreign leader to address the Vietnamese legislature, after Chinese President Xi Jinping. 

The President will begin his Vietnam visit in the centralcity of Da Nang and the world cultural heritage site My Son in the nearbyprovince of Quang Nam, which is considered an everlasting evidence of cohesionbetween the two nations’ civilisations, she said.

Dr. Faisal Ahmed from the FORE School of Management in NewDelhi held that President Kovind’s visit will help deepen the bilateralinteraction and bring about opportunities for Vietnam and India to step uptheir relationship, especially in the context of Vietnam being an importantfactor in India’s “Act East” policy.

To develop the bilateral ties effectively, he suggestedVietnam and India create more favourable conditions for each other in differentspheres by joining the value-added chain.

The two countries should cooperate and utilise each other’sadvantages in services, he said, suggesting stronger bilateral collaboration insuch services as education, health care, technology, finance, tourism,entertainment and logistics.

He also urged the two countries to enhance people-to-peopleexchange through academic sharing, meetings between businesses and culturalexchange.

Rajaram Panda, a researcher at Lok Sabha (House of People orlower house of India), also expressed his view that Vietnam and India should joinhands in film production and bolster their partnerships in culture, tourism andexchange between citizens.

He stressed that mutual visits at all levels signal theright track of the Vietnam-India relationship.

The scholars described Indiaas an important factor in Vietnam’sdevelopment cooperation and capacity building.

They commended bilateral defence and economic-trade ties,saying two-way trade is expected to increase from 3 billion USD in 2010 toabout 9.5 billion USD in 2018.

India supports Vietnam in maintaining the freedom ofnavigation and aviation, and establishing a rules-based order, they said,adding that both countries highlighted the significance of navigation andaviation freedom in the East Sea and called for the peaceful settlement ofdisputes without use of force or threat to use force.  

They said if countries concerned abide by internationalstandards such as the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, theregion will develop peacefully.-VNA