NA leader elated at growing Vietnam-India ties

At a reception in Hanoi on May 10 for Indian Vice President Venkaiah Naidu, who is also Chairman of the Rajya Sabha - the upper house of the Parliament of India, the top legislator welcomes Naidu’s official visit to Vietnam and attendance at the United Nations Day of Vesak 2019, believing that the trip would help consolidate political trust and solidarity between the States and people of Vietnam and India.

Naidu said Vietnam and India have always offered mutual suppor at international forums and he pledged closer coordination and mutual assistance at multilateral forums, especially within the framework of the United Nations (UN).

He promised to back the combined efforts to become a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council with Vietnam running for the 2020-2021 tenure and India for the 2021-2022 tenure.

Since 2016, the Vietnamese and Indian parliaments have, in turn, established friendship parliamentary groups in the respective countries, he added.
Ngan said the strengthening of relations between the two law-making bodies over the past years have made considerable contributions to promoting ties between two nations.

She said she is happy to see many leaders of foreign countries, including India, consented to send high-ranking delegations to the Vesak Day 2019 in Vietnam, showing their support for the host country.

The NA Chairwoman asked Naidu to intensify the exchange of high-level visits between the two countries’ leaders through the Party, State, National Assembly and Government channels.

She suggested enhancing people-to-people exchanges and cooperation between ministries, sectors, localities and businesses while expanding joint investment projects and upholding the role of friendship associations and friendship parliamentary groups in each nation.

Both sides need to step up consultations and sharing of information in addition to providing mutual support at multilateral forums and jointly making active contributions to the cooperation mechanisms of the ASEAN-India, the East Asia Summit, the ASEAN Regional Forum, the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), and the South-South Cooperation, along with the UN, regional and sub-regional cooperation mechanisms, she emphasized.

At the meeting, the two leaders also compared notes on issues of shared concern such as the settlement of disputes in the East Sea through peaceful measures and in the spirit of respecting international law, especially the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).