Vietnamese Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính and Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi at the side-lines of the ASEAN Summit held in Jakarta, Indonesia. — VNA/VNS Photo Dương Giang

JAKARTA — Vietnamese Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính met with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi and Bangladeshi President Mohammed Shahabuddin on the sidelines of the 43rd ASEAN Summit and Related Summits in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Thursday.

At the meeting with PM Modi, PM Chính once again congratulated India on its historic successful launches of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft to the moon and the Aditya-L1 spacecraft to study the sun as well as its recent economic, military and scientific - technological achievements; and successful presidency of the Group of Twenty (G20) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

The two PMs reaffirmed the traditional partnership, close friendship, and similar strategic interests between their countries while speaking highly of the increasingly practical and effective progress of the bilateral relations.

They shared the view that on the basis of the long-standing relations and strong political trust, Việt Nam and India should increase high-level mutual visits and meetings and step up cooperation in different fields, especially such new areas as digital transformation, energy transition, and green and sustainable economic development to generate common benefits for the two countries' people.

They agreed to enhance security-defence cooperation, a pillar of the Việt Nam-India comprehensive strategic partnership. Given difficulties facing the global economy, they agreed to assign their countries’ ministries, sectors, and localities to cooperate closely to help improve the strength of each economy, remove obstacles for enterprises, and facilitate bilateral trade.

Both leaders also concurred in assigning aviation agencies of Việt Nam and India to consider licensing each other’s airlines to increase direct flights between their big cities to meet people’s travel demand.

PM Modi acknowledged his Vietnamese counterpart’s proposals on signing a memorandum of understanding on e-commerce and an agreement on bilateral economic cooperation, and on minimising the imposition of trade barriers on each other’s goods.

The Indian PM also affirmed that he will encourage major enterprises of India to increase investment in Việt Nam.

The two PMs also agreed that Việt Nam and India will continue coordination and mutual support at regional and international forums. — VNS