New Delhi, Sept. 14 -- India and Vietnam agreed on Monday to boost their defence ties through joint production of military hardware and decided to expand bilateral trade by building stronger supply chains and widening market access.
External Affairs minister S Jaishankar and his Vietnamese counterpart Le Hoai Trung explored ways to further bolster the bilateral ties in a range of key areas during the 19th India-Vietnam Joint Commission Meeting (JCM) on trade, economic, scientific and technological cooperation. The two sides have also decided to expand cooperation in areas of air connectivity, nuclear energy and space.
"In a productive and outcome oriented discussion, the two ministers reviewed the full spectrum of bilateral relations under the India-Vietnam Enhanced Comprehensive Strategic Partnership," the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.
It said the two ministers identified the "way forward" on deepening ongoing defence and security collaboration, including through co-production of Indian defence items, expanding trade, investments and mutually beneficial supply chains and extending market access for Indian marine and agricultural products and pharmaceuticals.
The MEA said other areas identified for deeper cooperation included port and air connectivity; nuclear energy and space sector; heritage conservation; cooperation in standards for seafarers; capacity building, and people-to-people ties.
"The two sides exchanged views on regional and global developments of mutual interest and reaffirmed their commitment to closer cooperation and coordination in regional and multilateral fora," it said in a statement.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.