Vietnam - India established diplomatic relations on January 7, 1972. In July 2007, the two countries upgraded relations to a Strategic Partnership. By September 2016, the two countries upgraded relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership - the highest level in Vietnam's foreign relations with other countries in the world.
At the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, General Secretary and President To Lam paid a state visit to India from May 5 to May 7. In the exchange, the two leaders emphasized that deepening Vietnam-India relations will continue to bring practical benefits to the people of the two countries, and make important contributions to the implementation of each country's development goals, with India being the "India's development vision to 2047" and "Vietnam's goal of becoming a high-income developed country by 2045".
Point 4 in the Joint Statement on the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Strengthening between the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the Republic of India clearly states: "The two leaders shared views on the breakthrough developments in the regional and global situation, affirming the solid foundation of the two countries' relations based on trust, respect, mutual understanding, common vision and effective cooperation in many fields. On that basis, the two sides agreed to continue to elevate the Vietnam-India bilateral relationship to the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Strengthening in the spirit of "sharing vision, strategic convergence, substantive cooperation", with the desire to turn will into concrete results.
According to the full text of the Vietnam - India Joint Statement on the Enhanced Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with 52 points, the relationship of "Enhanced Comprehensive Strategic Partnership" between Vietnam and India has strengthened cooperation areas including: Political Cooperation (points 3-8), Economic, Trade and Investment Cooperation (points 9-15), Health Cooperation (points 16, 17), Defense and Security Cooperation (points 18-27), Maritime Cooperation (points 28, 29), Science and Technology Cooperation, including key technologies and emerging technologies (points 30-35), Development Cooperation (points 36-38), Culture, Tourism and People-to-people Exchange Cooperation (points 39-45), Regional and International Cooperation (points 46-51).
According to information from the summary of the doctoral dissertation "The process of Vietnam deepening foreign relations from 2006 to 2023" by researcher Tran Chi Trung (Diplomatic Academy) published on the website of the Diplomatic Academy: In diplomatic relations between the two countries, it is often divided into 4 levels from low to high, respectively: Partnership - Comprehensive partnership - Strategic partnership and the highest level is Comprehensively strategic partnership.
In which, Partnership is a term referring to a cooperative relationship - cooperation but at a higher and more specific level and strategic (Strategic), broadly meaning comprehensive, key and relatively long-term value in terms of time: (1) Comprehensive partnership is a broad and multi-sectoral cooperative relationship, aimed at promoting cooperative relations between the two sides in many fields and serving the development goals of both countries. (2) Strategic Partnership is an important cooperative relationship, with the nature of jointly aiming for specific goals and long-term relationship desires. (3) Comprehensive Strategic Partnership is a higher level of Strategic Partnership.
This document also notes: No country or organization has officially announced the content and conditions for establishing a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. Based on the practice of global Strategic Partnership networks, a number of basic criteria and conditions can be given to identify Comprehensive Strategic Partnership as follows: Having official confirmation, evolution from the Strategic Partnership, having the participation and binding of leaders at all levels and having long-term interest connections.
