General Secretary, President To Lam's visit to India to shape new cooperation framework
WVR - In an interview with the press, Member of the Party Central Committee, Standing Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of the Ministry, and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Manh Cuong emphasized that General Secretary, President To Lam's visit to India is a significant diplomatic milestone aimed at consolidating political trust, creating new momentum, and elevating the Vietnam-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
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| Member of the Party Central Committee, Standing Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of the Ministry, and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Manh Cuong emphasized that General Secretary, President To Lam's visit to India is an opportunity to consolidate political trust and create new momentum for bilateral relations. (Source: Thanh Long) |
At the invitation of Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee, President To Lam, along with a high-level Vietnamese delegation, will pay a state visit to India from May 5-7, 2026.
On this occasion, Nguyen Manh Cuong, Member of the Party Central Committee, Standing Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of the Ministry, and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, gave an interview to the press regarding the purpose and significance of the visit, as well as the directions and expectations for promoting the Vietnam-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in the future.
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| General Secretary, President To Lam and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi within the framework of the Future Summit and the high-level discussion session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York (USA), September 2024. (Source: People's Army Newspaper) |
Could you please share the purpose and significance of General Secretary, President To Lam's state visit to India?
The visit of General Secretary, President To Lam to India is a significant and particularly meaningful diplomatic event. This is the first time that the General Secretary, President visits India in his new capacity, coinciding with the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the two countries (2016-2026).
The visit demonstrates Vietnam's regard for the Vietnam-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership as well as for the South Asian region in general. It is also a very meaningful opportunity for the two countries to consolidate and enhance relations in all aspects, while reviewing the implementation of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership framework over the past decade, thereby creating new impetus and shaping the cooperation framework for bilateral relations between Vietnam and India to a new height in the next phase.
Furthermore, the visit also contributes to highlighting the orientations and objectives of Vietnam and India in sharing a common vision and strategic interests, making each country a substantive priority in each other's foreign policy, while exchanging views on common concerns and enhancing mutual support on regional and international forums.
It can be said that this state visit to India by the General Secretary, President is a clear testament to the foreign policy of our Party and State in the new era as set out by the 14th Party Congress Resolution. This policy emphasizes independence, self-reliance, resilience, peace, friendship, cooperation and development, multilateralization, diversification of foreign relations, and being a responsible member of the international community. Through the visit, we also continue to affirm that Vietnam is a friend, a reliable partner, and an active, responsible member of the international community; actively and responsibly participating in addressing common regional and international issues.
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| The Vietnamese and Indian armies participate in a United Nations peacekeeping exercise in 2025. (Source: VNA) |
Could you share the outstanding achievements in Vietnam-India relations recently? What important outcomes are expected from this visit by General Secretary, President To Lam?
India is a traditional friendly partner in the South Asian region that we highly value and wish to elevate relations to a new height. Over the years, Vietnam-India relations have developed steadily and consistently, increasingly deepening, especially with the establishment of the Vietnam-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2016, which marked a qualitative shift.
Currently, the two countries have over 20 bilateral cooperation mechanisms across various fields and have signed many important cooperation documents guiding the relationship. Political trust is strengthened through frequent delegation exchanges at all levels, including high-level visits, and defense-security cooperation is quite deep, with joint training and exercises, reflecting profound trust between the two countries.
Economic-trade cooperation has grown very positively, with bilateral trade turnover reaching approximately 15-16 billion USD annually in recent years. India is currently among Vietnam's top 10 largest trading partners. Bilateral investment continues to expand with nearly 500 projects, and there is still much potential for the two countries to continue making breakthrough cooperation steps.
Notably, Vietnam and India are strongly expanding cooperation into new areas such as science and technology, innovation, digital transformation, artificial intelligence (AI), clean energy, and satellite data. Additionally, cultural exchanges and people-to-people interactions between the two countries are also experiencing strong development.
In multilateral frameworks, Vietnam and India share a common vision of building an order based on international law, strengthening multilateral institutions, peace, stability, and sustainable development. The two countries also frequently coordinate closely and support each other at regional and international multilateral organizations and forums.
During this visit, it is expected that General Secretary, President To Lam will have a very rich program in the capital New Delhi and in the most developed economic, financial, scientific, and technological center, Mumbai.
General Secretary, President To Lam will discuss with Indian leaders strategic directions to promote cooperation and create breakthroughs in potential areas such as science and technology, innovation, digital transformation, healthcare, clean energy, infrastructure, promoting people-to-people exchanges, culture, religion...
Alongside high-level talks and meetings between the leaders of the two countries, many vibrant and practical activities will be organized, such as forums on finance, promoting science and technology, innovation… We expect this to be a real opportunity for the two countries to expand cooperation space, expand trade and investment markets, strengthen supply chains, and cooperate in science and technology to attract resources for development.
It can be affirmed that this state visit to India by General Secretary, President To Lam reflects a common determination to elevate the traditional friendly relations between Vietnam and India, which have a rich history and strategic depth.
We believe the visit will become an important political milestone, shaping a higher-level framework for Vietnam-India relations, thereby bringing practical benefits to the people and businesses, contributing to achieving the sustainable development goals of each country, and contributing to peace, stability, cooperation, and development in the region.
