New Delhi: Pham Minh Chinh, the Prime Minister of Vietnam, arrived in India Tuesday for a three-day state visit — the second by a foreign leader since Prime Minister Narendra Modi returned to power for a third term.
This is the first visit by a Vietnamese prime minister to India since the two countries established a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2016. It comes as New Delhi looks to strengthen ties with Southeast Asian nations under the Act East Policy.
Discussions will touch upon various areas of cooperation, including defence, artificial intelligence, telecommunications, renewable energy, digital economies, and semiconductors.
“On 01 August, Prime Minister Chinh will receive a ceremonial welcome at the Forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan after which he will visit Raj Ghat to pay tribute to Mahatma Gandhi. He will hold bilateral discussions with the Prime Minister who will also host a luncheon in his honour,” said the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in a statement Tuesday.
The statement added: “Prime Minister Chinh is scheduled to call on the President of India Smt. Droupadi Murmu and the Vice President of India Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar. External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar is expected to call on the visiting Prime Minister.”
Vietnam has grown in importance for global powers, hosting the leaders of China, the US, and Russia since September 2023.
Last year, US President Joseph Biden left the G20 summit hosted by New Delhi for a two-day state visit to Vietnam, where the two countries upgraded their relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership.
In December 2023, the country hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping, who met with Prime Minister Chinh and the then-general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Nguyen Phu Trong.
Phu Trong passed away on 19 July this year after being at the helm of the country’s affairs for 13 years.
In June 2024, Vietnam hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin amid US criticism. Despite Russia’s pariah status among Western countries, Moscow and Hanoi promised to deepen their partnership, indicating the balance the Southeast Asian country has achieved in its foreign policy.
Chinh’s visit comes just before President Droupadi Murmu leaves for a five-day trip to Fiji, Timor-Leste and New Zealand, highlighting New Delhi’s intention to strengthen its footprint in the Indo-Pacific region.
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Trade & defence ties between New Delhi & Hanoi
Ties between India and Vietnam have grown in recent years, with the Southeast Asian country emerging as India’s 21st largest trading partner in goods in the 2023-24 financial year, according to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
The total value of the bilateral trade touched $14.8 billion in 2023-24, up from $10.1 billion in 2016-17, when the comprehensive strategic partnership was established.
According to Vietnamese local media reports, India has made nearly $1.1 billion worth of investments in the country, with roughly 380 projects active. This makes India the 24th largest investor in Vietnam.
Earlier, in February 2024, VinFast, a Vietnam-based electric vehicle manufacturer, began constructing a new EV factory in Tamil Nadu, committing to distribute a capital of $2 billion over time, in a move that highlights new areas of economic cooperation between India and Vietnam.
Defence ties between Vietnam and India have deepened over the years. In July 2023, India handed over the decommissioned INS Kirpan, an indigenously built Khukri-class corvette, to the Vietnamese Navy. Admiral R. Hari Kumar, then Chief of the Indian Navy, and Rear Admiral Pham Manh Hung, Deputy Commander-in-Chief and Chief of Staff of the Vietnam People’s Navy, presided over the handover ceremony.
In June 2022, the two countries signed a ‘Joint Vision Statement on India — Vietnam Defence Partnership towards 2030‘ during the visit of Indian Minister of Defence Rajnath Singh to Vietnam.
Now, Hanoi is looking to increase the number of tourists it gets from India. In 2023, 3,92,141 Indians travelled to Vietnam, according to its National Authority on Tourism. According to local media reports in Vietnam, India is among the top-three fastest growing tourist markets for travel to Vietnam in recent years.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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Pretty difficult to understand why is India not on board with Vietnam on SCS issues as strongly as we are with the Philippines.