President of Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences
Associate Professor Dr. Bui Nhat Quang
Deputy Director General of Vietnam Institute for Indian and Southwest Asian Studies, Dr. Pham Cao Cuong
Former Director Generals of VIISAS
Prof. Dr. Ngo Xuan Binh, and
Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Xuan Trung
Distinguished scholars and participants from India and Vietnam joining us today
Ladies and gentlemen:
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I will begin by complimenting the Vietnam Institute of Indian and Southwest Asian Studies on its 10th founding anniversary.
Over these 10 years, VIISAS has emerged as an active centre in Vietnam for promoting understanding and scholarship about India and India-Vietnam relations.
During my tenure in Vietnam over the last three years, I have been privileged to be closely associated with Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences.
And I have seen VIISAS playing an increasingly important role in bringing the academic and strategic communities from India and Vietnam closer together and facilitating a serious discourse on a regular basis on issues of our shared interests.
These interactions have helped both sides in developing fuller appreciation of each other’s national priorities and policy choices and gaining a deeper understanding of our comprehensive strategic partnership.
I particularly acknowledge the contributions of all the three DGs of VIISAS, past and present, who have dedicated their efforts to building the brand image of VIISAS as a premier centre for India studies in Vietnam.
It is also a great pleasure for me to see some of the eminent Indian scholars on Vietnam joining today’s event, along with some very experienced experts from Vietnam, to enrich our exchanges on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of India-Vietnam diplomatic relations.
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Diplomatic relations between India and Vietnam were established in 1972. However, our friendship and close relations predate that milestone.
We have millennia old civilizational connection, which are manifest in our shared Buddhist and Cham heritage.
As nations with a shared history of struggle for independence from colonial rule that mutually inspired our national movements, India and Vietnam have enjoyed excellent relations with a tradition of helping each other during adversities, showing sensitivity to each other’s concerns and aspirations, and supporting each other’s national development.
The last fifty years have been a remarkable journey of togetherness as both India and Vietnam have overcome adversities to pursue nation-building and socio-economic transformation.
In recent years, our multifaceted engagement under the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership have made forward strides in all areas – whether political engagement or trade and investment ties, energy cooperation, development partnership, defence and security cooperation, people-to-people relations, and so on.
Our defence partnership achieved new breakthroughs during the visit last week of our Defence Minister to Vietnam.
Our bilateral trade for the first time crossed the 14-billion-dollar mark last year. As both our economies are gaining robust recoveries from the pandemic, our business and industries are looking at opportunities in each other’s country with greater expectations and interest. We are building new partnerships in emerging sectors such as information and communication technology, renewable and clean energy, innovation etc.
Our Quick Impact Projects in 33 provinces of Vietnam today are providing benefits at the grassroots level and bringing our development cooperation closer to the people.
Our cultural exchanges have achieved new levels through our cooperation in archaeological conservation projects for some of our shared heritage in Vietnam.
Resumption of direct flights have added a new energy in our tourism and people-to-people exchanges.
Our converging visions for, and our common interest in, the peace, stability and prosperity of our shared Indo-Pacific region – which is manifest in broad overlaps between India’s IPOI and Vietnam’s AOIP – provide a strong basis for our deeper engagement in areas like maritime security, maritime connectivity and marine ecological protection.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, which is one of the biggest challenges that the humanity faced in our living history, we again came forward to lend a helping hand to each other.
We are thankful to Vietnam for providing critical medical supplies to us during our worst phase of the pandemic last year. Similarly, from India, we were able to provide medical supplies, critical medicines, and most importantly, technical assistance in development of Vietnam’s homegrown COVID-19 vaccine.
The wide-ranging development of our ties is largely attributable to our commitment to take a long-term and strategic view of our relationship based on deep mutual trust and understanding, shared values and interests as well as our belief in each other’s future progress and prosperity.
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As for the prospects of our relations, the “Joint Vision for Peace, Prosperity and People” adopted by our Prime Minister during their Virtual Summit in 2020 provides us the blueprint and the guiding principles.
As we explore the future of our partnership, it is striking to find many similarities that we share, which give us the confidence and also higher ambitions about the future of our ties.
I have spoken about these similarities earlier too standing right here, and would risk repeating myself, because I think they provide the real basis for why I believe our relations have a bright future.
We are two aspirational societies with youthful demography.
We are two rapidly growing economies. Both our countries are focused on joining the ranks of high-income advanced economies by the time we complete the centenary of our respective independence – 2045 for Vietnam and 2047 for India.
Our development visions have many overlapping areas. We both are committed to overcoming shared challenges like climate change and poverty to achieve sustainable and inclusive development.
We both aspire for self-reliance to become self-sustaining and resilient, not by isolating ourselves, but by building capacities at home and developing trusted supply chains so that we can engage with global economy more confidently.
We are two countries increasingly driven by the promise of new technologies, innovation, and digitization to deliver economic growth and people’s empowerment.
We also have similar views on most regional and international issues, which automatically create ground for closer cooperation on regional and international stage. We both are committed to international law and reformed multilateralism. We both are ardent advocates for respect of sovereignty and territorial integrity of nations. And we both believe that India-Vietnam cooperation provides a factor of stability in our shared Indo-Pacific region.
So, I am very optimistic about the future of this relationship. And I believe that our ties are full of promise.
And with the help of opinion makers and thought leaders like VASS and VIISAS, and all the scholars and experts present here, we look forward to bringing that promise to fruition.
I once again thank Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences and VIISAS for inviting me to share my thoughts with you today. And I wish you all a very productive and thought-provoking dialogue.
Thank you!
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