India ready to expand ties with VN, says PM Singh

Folowing is the full text of the interview:

Question: Would you please elaborate the significance of the upcoming visit to India by PM Nguyễn Tấn Dũng?

Answer: An inspiring legacy of friendship and cooperation has been bequeathed to India and Việt Nam by two of the greatest leaders of the 20th century PM Jawaharlal Nehru and President Hồ Chí Minh. Like the leaders who preceded us, I am confident that PM Nguyễn Tấn Dũng and I will work successfully to nurture this relationship further.

There is tremendous work to be done on our bilateral ties. We need to expand the ties beyond traditional areas like trade and cultural cooperation. I met PM Nguyễn Tấn Dũng in Cebu this January, and was impressed by his ideas and commitment to broaden the scope of our ties. I keenly look forward to his forthcoming visit from this perspective. I hope to discuss ways in which we can elevate our ties to a higher level.

Question: Would you please paraphrase development experiences which India has gone through?
Answer: A process of comprehensive reform of the Indian economy has been underway for over a decade now. This has resulted in some notable successes such as rapid economic growth, greater foreign investment and technology inflows into the country and the emergence of Indian companies that are multi-national and technology leaders in their fields. We have sustained an annual 8.5 percent rate of growth in our economy for a fifth year in a row.

However, much work needs to be done in the social sectors. We still need to tackle problems of poverty and illiteracy that our people face. We need to improve access to health care for a vast majority of our population who live in rural areas. We in India are inspired by what Việt Nam has achieved in these areas despite having faced great challenges in the 20th century. I think that India has much to learn from Việt Nam ’s experiences and we need to exchange views and share lessons learnt.

Question: What should India and Việt Nam do to make a break-through in the areas of bilateral trade and investment?

Answer: I agree that notwithstanding the consistent rise in the volume of trade between the two countries, the level of bilateral trade in value terms is still far below its potential. I understand PM Nguyễn Tấn Dũng also conveyed dissatisfaction with the current level of our economic interaction during one of his recent interviews. With both the Indian and Vietnamese economies growing at a record pace in recent years, and the political will that exists on both sides to enhance our economic engagement, there is no reason why we should not be able to significantly scale up trade and investment between the two countries. Việt Nam has strengths in inland fisheries, handicrafts, food processing and textiles. India can offer collaboration in pharmaceuticals, animal feed, auto components and plastics.

I intend to discuss this matter in greater detail with the PM. To begin with, I would suggest that we must create a policy environment that will facilitate a much freer movement of goods, services and people between the two countries, both bilaterally, and also under the India-ASEAN framework.
Question: India has been exercising the “East-oriented” policy in order to bolster the country’s regional integration. What does India expect from Việt Nam in the course of carrying out that policy?
Answer: An integral part of our “Look East" policy is greater engagement with countries of the ASEAN region, both bilaterally and as a regional grouping. We are giving special emphasis to the CLMV (Cambodia-Laos-Myanmar-Việt Nam), which are countries with whom we have the strongest civilizational links and with whom we are cooperating under the Initiative for ASEAN Integration program. We consider our cooperation with Việt Nam to be a key element in this overall engagement with the region. India and Việt Nam share similar objectives and often have similar positions on a variety of international issues. We look to Việt Nam for its support for enhancing India ’s ties and interaction with the ASEAN region.