New Delhi (VNA) – An Indianscholar has hailed Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang's upcoming visit toIndia as a significant event given the fact that the Vietnamese President has avery positive attitude towards the bilateral ties and has a fair knowledgeabout the status of the relationship between the two countries.

In an interview granted to theVietnam News Agency ahead of President Tran Dai Quang’s visit to India (March2-4), Professor, Dr. Pankaj Jha, a senior faculty member with Jindal School ofInternational Affairs (JSIA) and is also Editor-in- Chief of the JSIA Journal,said in the last three years, the hyper activism in India-Vietnam relations hasmanifested itself into opening of new vistas of cooperation between the twosides.

This includes areas such aspolitical understanding on areas of critical interest, defence and strategicareas, increasing trade and investment, building capacities in manufacturing,education, health, energy, agriculture sector, increasing tourism and cultureties, connectivity (both infrastructure and digital), increasing lines ofcredit and explore new areas of developmental partnership.

The professor noted that thevisits of PM Modi, India’s foreign minister and National Security Adviser have beenwell complemented by the visits of the Vietnamese Prime Minister during therecently concluded India- ASEAN Summit, Deputy Prime Minister and ForeignMinister, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the Chairpersonof the National Assembly of Vietnam and now the President.

He stressed that it clearlymanifested the fact that the two countries are willing to take the relationshipto a new level and the slow momentum has now been raised to acceleratedinteraction.

“Given the fact that Vietnam isone of the fastest growing economies in Southeast Asia and India is the fastestgrowing economy in Asia, there is bound to be mutual cooperation,” Prof. PankajJha said, adding that the trade and investment between India and Vietnam arebound to grow and the sectors which might see the surge include education,health, low tech manufacturing and also agriculture.

According to him, President Quang’svisit must now address issues related to working out a common agenda for theAction Plan 2018-2020 to implement and also undertake measures to fructify theelements of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership which was signed during thevisit of Prime Minister Modi to Vietnam.

He noted that there is a need towork out elements of further cooperation in the fields of defence and defencemanufacturing, space cooperation, regular annual high-level defence andstrategic dialogue, service-to-service cooperation in particular defenceaviation, signalling, radars, and promoting regular naval ship visits. The twocountries need to work out an annual plan on extensive training and capacitybuilding, facilitate easy defence equipment procurement along with deferredpayment plan or utilising Lines of Credit, and work on joint venture indeveloping critical technologies.

The scholar was also of the viewthat between the two sides there is a need for discussion on how to empowerdifferent regional mechanisms such as ADMM and also Extended ASEAN MaritimeForum.

 According to him, those organisations have the potential to address andinitiate dialogue on critical issues but have been working below potential.

He added that the two sides mustlook into new technologies which are developing in the civilian domain whichincludes artificial intelligence, robotics and also work in the areas such asmetallurgy and developing composite materials.

Regarding the position and roleof Vietnam in India's "Act East Policy", Professor Pankaj Jha said theties between the two countries goes a long way back, citing the well-known friendshipbetween Ho Chi Minh and Nehru, then Indian PM and Rajendra Prasad, then IndianPresident. He also noted that the rooted personality of Ho Chi Minh inspiredmany nationalist leaders across India and he was an icon among the Indianmasses.

According to the scholar, infact, India- Vietnam ties were unaffected by the end of cold war, and therelationship has been durable and close. Therefore, Vietnam holds an importantplace in India’s Act East policy and is one of the horizons of the policy.

The best thing is that bothsides want to enhance the goal-oriented ties in different fields, Prof. PankajJha said, stressing that the need of the hour is to work out an action plan andimplement it to the best of capacities.

He said the politicalunderstanding between the two sides is very intense and Vietnam’s support toIndia’s Security Council membership shows the trust between the two sides.India has also supported Vietnam in international institutions. The twocountries are members in East Asia Summit and ASEAN related institutions whichprovide platforms for further developing the understanding and cooperation andwork towards maintaining peace and harmony in the region. 

Professor Pankaj Jha suggestedthat there is still great potential for bilateral cooperation in areas such asresearch and development in defence, joint venture in non-lethal weaponsdevelopment, metallurgy, maintenance and repairs, space, artificialintelligence, agriculture, fisheries, animal husbandry, floriculture,sericulture, power generation and energy efficiency, disaster management, earlywarning systems, and exchange of intelligence and information.

At the same time, he noted thatin terms of financial architecture and developing the capital markets, there isa need to exchange of information and developing complementarities so thatinvestment can be easy. Further, the problem between the two countries is that theyare competitors for the same set of goods in the international market whichincludes, pepper, coffee, tea and rice.

Prof. Pankaj Jha also pointed tothe problems in customs harmonisations and the really long list of negativelist items in the bilateral trade, which do constrain the possibility of tradeenhancement, adding that it is necessary to prune down the negative list fromthe two sides.

Dr. Pankaj Jha teaches national,international security, and defence strategy to postgraduate students at JindalSchool of International Affairs (JSIA). He was Director (Research) with IndianCouncil of World Affairs for more than two and half years (2014-2017). He hasmore than 80 articles/academic papers in both refereed and non–refereedjournals, and has authored two books on India and China in Southeast Asia:Competition or Cooperation (2013) and India and the Oceania:Exploring Vistas of Cooperation (2016).-VNA