Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam will continue its close cooperation withIndia to further deepen the comprehensive strategic partnership between the twonations, Party General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong has said.

He made the affirmation on November 20 while meeting with domestic andinternational press in Hanoi to announce the outcomes of his talks withvisiting Indian President Ram Nath Kovind.

Besides discussing regional and global issues of mutual interests at the talks,both leaders laid stress on the necessity to deepen the bilateral comprehensivestrategic partnership in all sectors, and agreed to maintain cooperativemechanisms and carry out high-level agreements and documents inked between thetwo sides.

They described defence-security as one of the important pillars in bilateralties and stressed that both sides should strive to remove bottlenecks as wellas work out practical policies and measures to elevate two-way trade with aview to increasing import-export revenue to 15 billion USD in the coming time.

Also, they reached consensus to step up investment promotion activities in thefields of India’s strengths and Vietnam’s priority for development. Bothleaders welcomed the cooperation between the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PVN)and the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) of India in oil exploration andexploitation in Vietnam, saying that more effective cooperative models shouldbe put in place.

In addition, they were unanimous in bolstering collaboration in culture,tourism, aviation, people-to-people exchange and education-training, amongothers.

Host and guest affirmed close coordination and support for each other atmultilateral forums, especially the United Nations and the Non-AlignedMovement.

Vietnam welcomed India’s “Act East” policy, and spoke highly of India’s backupof ASEAN’s central role in the forming of the regional structure in East Asia.As a coordinator, Vietnam has made significant contributions to fostering theASEAN-India relations, the host affirmed.

The two leaders stressed the importance of building the Indo-Asia-Pacific intoa peaceful and prosperous region based on respect of sovereignty, internationallaw, and freedom of aviation and navigation.

Vietnam attached importance to India’s stance on the East Sea issue in the pasttime, and thanked the Southern Asian country for continuing to support Vietnam’sviewpoint on this issue.

Ram Nath Kovind, for his part, thanked Party General Secretary and PresidentTrong for giving him and the Indian delegation a warm welcome. Vietnam is astrategic pillar of India in its “Act East” policy and an important dialoguepartner of the country in the ASEAN.

As the comprehensive strategic partners, Vietnam and India are enjoyingthriving relations based on mutual trust and understanding, and closecooperation at multilateral forums.

He expressed his delight over the robust economic ties between the two nations,with two-way trade reaching 12.8 billion USD in 2017. He said he hopes thatwith concerted efforts made by the two countries, they will realise the setgoals of increasing trade revenue to 15 billion USD in 2020.

The Indian President also underlined that similarities in culture have servedas a catalyst to strengthening bonds between the two countries.

Following their talks, both leaders witnessed the signing of severalcooperation deals, including the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between theHo Chi Minh National Academy of Politics and the Jawaharlal Nehru University,the MoU between the Vietnamese Ministry of Information and Communications andIndian Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, the MoU betweenthe Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Indian Confederation of IndianIndustry, and the MoU between the President of the Indian Business Chamber inVietnam and the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of ForeignAffairs of Localities.-VNA