President offers sympathies to Belarus after blast

President
Nguyen Minh Triet yesterday, April 12, sent a message of condolences to the
Republic of Belarus’s President A Lucashenko following a bombing of a subway
station in Minsk on Monday.

Twelve
people were killed and more than 200 others injured in the bombing.

India’s ‘Heading East’ policy highlights Viet Nam

Viet Nam
has played a key role in India’s ‘Heading East’ policy, said Indian Foreign
Minister S M Krishna.

The
statement was made as he received Party Central Committee member Hoang Binh Quan
during his week-long visit to India, which wrapped up yesterday.

During
his working visit, the head of the committee’s External Affairs Commission and
the Indian Foreign Minister discussed ways to enhance the two countries’
bilateral strategic partnership.

Both
sides agreed to promote two-way investment and increase trade volume to US$5
billion by 2015.

Last
year’s two-way trade volume equalled $2.75 billion, in which Viet Nam earned
$990 million in export revenue.

The two
officials promised to promote co-operation in culture, national defence,
education and training, science, and technology.

Vietnam, India seek to boost strategic partnership

Photo: VNA

Vietnam plays a prioritised role in India’s “Look
East” policy and India commits to further step up the strategic partnership
between the two nations, said India Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna.

Krishna stated this during his talks
with Hoang Binh Quan, member of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central
Committee and Head of its Commission for External Relations, who paid a visit to
India from April 6-12.

Quan briefed his host on Vietnam’s
recent situation, its socio-economic achievements in 2010 and the results of the
CPV’s 11th National Congress in early 2011.

Both host and guest agreed to
increase the exchange of visits at all levels and soon convene the 14^th
meeting of the Inter-governmental Committee in Vietnam to seek ways of boosting
the exchange of Vietnamese and Indian investments.

The officials were unanimous that
the two sides should discuss measures to raise bilateral trade turnover to US$5
billion by 2015 and further promote cooperation in the fields of culture,
education, training, science, technology, human resources development, security
and national defence.

During his trip, Quan held separate
meetings with National Security Advisor S. Menon; Head of the ruling National
Congress Party’s Department for Foreign Affairs Karan Singh; Politburo member of
the Communist Party of India Marxist (CPI-M) Pander; Secretary of the Communist
Party of India Central Committee S. Phaidi; the Vice President and Secretary
General of the Bharatiya Janata Party (India People’s Party); and the Chairman
of the India-Vietnam Solidarity Committee.

The Vietnamese Party official also
visited the state of Karnataka and the School of Public Policy and met with
representatives of Vietnamese students in Bangalore city.

VN calls for retention of ASEAN’s central role

Vietnamese Permanent
Deputy Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh has stressed that ASEAN needs to exert
efforts to maintain its central role in the East Asian Summit EAS.
The diplomat was speaking at the Special Informal ASEAN Foreign Ministers’
Meeting on the EAS held in Bangkok , Thailand on April 10-11.
He said that efforts include defining the agenda and priorities for the East
Asia Summit, and developing the Summit ’s role in addressing issues of strategic
importance and with influence in the region.
Minh affirmed that the decision by the 2010 Hanoi ASEAN Summit to extend the EAS
to include Russia and the US was strategically significant and opened a new
phase of development for the EAS.
The Deputy FM also said that during its activities the EAS must comply with the
basic principles set out in the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC) in
Southeast Asia.
During the meeting foreign ministers and diplomats from ASEAN member countries
discussed a wide range of issues, including maritime security.
Delegates highlighted the need for ASEAN to uphold its leading role in creating
plans to deal with traditional and non-traditional challenges and raise
initiatives to avoid the adverse impacts of geopolitical changes.

VNN/VOV/Vietnam+