Defence Minister Rajnath Singh speaks to Vietnamese counterpart, accepts invitation to visit Vietnam.....

 Defence Minister Rajnath Singh speaks to Vietnamese counterpart, accepts invitation to visit Vietnam.....

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held an online interaction with Minister of National Defence of Vietnam Sr Lt Gen Phan Van Giang on Thursday

During the interaction, both ministers reviewed the progress on the current initiatives and expressed commitment to further enhance engagements between the defence forces of the two countries under the framework of India-Vietnam Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (2016) and under the guidance of the Joint Vision for Peace, Prosperity and People signed during the Virtual Summit between the prime ministers of the two countries in December 2020, a statement said.

Both the ministers acknowledged the significance of the Joint Vision Statement of 2015-20 in strengthening defence cooperation engagements between both the countries thus far and looked forward to concluding the Joint Vision Statement of 2021-25 at the earliest opportunity, the statement added.Rajnath Singh and Sr Lt Gen Phan Van Giang agreed to initiate measures to enhance cooperation in defence industry and technology domain and look forward to greater synergy in effectively deepening bilateral cooperative engagements across the spectrum, it said.

Both Ministers expressed satisfaction at the ongoing activities between the two countries despite the Covid-imposed limitations.

In a series of tweets, Rajnath Singh termed the relationship between India and Vietnam as "strong and effective". He said: "India attaches great importance to its bilateral defence cooperation with Vietnam. Both India and Vietnam share a long-standing tradition of helping each other in difficult times. We have achieved substantial progress in defence industry cooperation in recent years.'

"The defence minister added that India and Vietnam continue to make forward movements in overcoming the challenges posed by Covid-19. He thanked Sr Lt Gen Phan Van Giangfor for inviting him on an official visit to Vietnam.