Vietnam, India mark 40th anniversary of ties

HANOI - Vietnam wishes to further expand cooperation with India in fields of education, science and information and communications technology, said Nguyen Thien Nhan, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister here on Tuesday.

Nhan made the remarks during the seminar themed "Vietnam-India Strategic Partnership: Future Directions" being held in Vietnam's capital Hanoi on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of establishment of full diplomatic relations between the two countries.

With many commons in history, Vietnam-India strategic partnership has grown strongly over the years; however, the cooperation potential is still not fully tapped. The two countries should work together to bring the bilateral trade turnover to grow to $7 billion by 2015, Nhan added.

Ranjit Rae, Indian Ambassador to Vietnam, for his part, said that the seminar will bring together exports, research scholars from the two countries to deliberate on topical issues of mutual interest.

Sessions will focus on the evolving security architecture in the Asia-Pacific region and will also highlight the multifaceted nature of the strategic partnership between India and Vietnam spanning political, security and defense cooperation, commercial and economic engagement, information and communications technology (ICT), science and hi-technology, Rae added.

In 2011, the bilateral trade turnover between Vietnam and India reached $3.9 billion. So far, over 65 Indian companies have invested about one billion US dollars in projects of energy, minerals, mining and ICT in Vietnam.