In the afternoon of May 6, in New Delhi, after witnessing the exchange of cooperation documents between ministries, branches, and localities of the two countries, General Secretary and President To Lam and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with the press.
Speaking at a press conference, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his pleasure to welcome General Secretary and President To Lam and said that the visit contributed to promoting cooperative relations between the two countries.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasized that Vietnam has become India's first strategic partner in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), along with cooperation in trade and science, the two sides announced the upgrade of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership to strengthen and bring the relationship to a new height.
Trade cooperation strives to increase bilateral trade turnover to 25 billion USD by 2030 and unify a number of solutions: Deeper pharmaceutical product cooperation; promoting agricultural product exchange bringing practical benefits to consumers of both countries; updating the ASEAN-India Goods Trade Agreement to create new momentum for trade and investment between India and ASEAN countries; focusing on supply chain stability and infrastructure development; new cooperation initiatives in the fields of strategic minerals, rare earths and energy are expected to contribute to strengthening economic security as well as improving the supply chain recovery capacity of both countries; prioritizing strengthening cooperation between financial institutions of the two sides.
Speaking at a press conference, General Secretary and President To Lam said that the two sides highly appreciated the achievements of more than 50 years of bilateral relations, 10 years of Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and affirmed that they give high priority to the development of Vietnam-India relations. The two sides also shared visions for the region and the world and reached high consensus on the important significance of Vietnam-India relations for both countries, wishing to strengthen connections on the vision and development strategy of the two countries to better respond to changes in the situation.
The two sides agreed to continue to elevate bilateral relations to a "Strengthened Comprehensive Strategic Partnership" in the spirit of "Sharing vision, strategic convergence and substantive cooperation", bringing cooperation between the two countries into depth.
The two sides agreed to continue to further deepen political trust, strengthen high-level contacts and improve the effectiveness of existing cooperation mechanisms; elevate defense and security cooperation to become a strategic pillar, contributing to consolidating a peaceful and stable environment; create clear changes in economic, trade and investment cooperation, promote supply chain linkages, remove barriers and expand markets; take science, technology, innovation and digital transformation as new driving forces for cooperation, opening up high value-added development fields; strengthen people-to-people, cultural and educational exchanges, thereby consolidating a sustainable social foundation for the relationship between the two countries.
The two sides agreed to continue to promote activities within the framework of the ASEAN - India Maritime Cooperation Year 2026; Vietnam encouraged India to connect further with ASEAN and the Mekong Subregion.
