NEW DELHI – Speaker of India’s Lower House Sumitra Mahajan and visiting Vietnamese National Assembly (NA) Chairwoman Nguyễn Thị Kim Ngân agreed on the need to enhance parliamentary relations during their talks at the Indian parliament’s headquarters in New Delhi late yesterday.

They said the enhancement can be made through increasing exchanges in lawmaking and between parliamentary friendship groups and parliamentary agencies.

Chairwoman Ngân, who is on an official visit to India, congratulated India on immense development achievements, affirming that Việt Nam always considers this country as a traditional and trustworthy friend. She also highly valued recent important strides in the two countries’ multifaceted cooperation.

She lauded growing ties between their legislative bodies, noting that the Vietnamese NA wants to bolster bilateral connections with its Indian counterpart at regional and international forums.

Appreciating the Indian parliament’s support to the time-honoured friendship with Việt Nam over the past years, she welcomed the two legislatures’ signing of a cooperation agreement which will serve as an important legal framework for bilateral cooperation.

Both sides should step up coordination in supervising and promoting the effective implementation of inked high-level agreements, especially on the pillars of politics, economics, defence-security, trade-investment, science-technology, and culture-education.

They need to foster visits at high levels, and between parliamentary agencies, parliamentary friendship groups, and parliamentarians to deepen mutual trust and understanding while exchanging lawmaking and supervision experience, Ngân said.

She also asked them to continue bringing into play the consultation mechanism and working closely at multilateral forums such as the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the Asia-Europe Parliamentary Partnership Meeting.

On this occasion, she invited Speaker of India’s Lower House Sumitra Mahajan to re-visit Việt Nam in the near future.

For her part, Mahajan described Ngân’s visit as significant while their countries are preparing to celebrate 45 years of diplomatic relations and 10 years of strategic partnership. She also congratulated her guest on her election as the first NA Chairwoman of Việt Nam.

She noted that Việt Nam and India boasted time-tested relations, rejoicing at thriving bilateral ties. The countries shared many common values and cultural similarities and would remain each other’s partners in the region and at international forums, she said.

She said economic and trade links between their nations could develop more strongly. They could also expand partnerships in many other spheres such as education, culture and archaeology.

At the talks, Mahajan affirmed India’s support for Việt Nam’s viewpoints on the East Sea (South China Sea) issues, underlining that all countries in the region need to adhere to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and maintain peace and stability in the East Sea.

Speaking highly of the Southeast Asian nation’s development attainments in a short period of time, she said she would be willing to re-visit Việt Nam – the country of late President Hồ Chí Minh, whom the Indian people respect.

Following the talks, Chairwoman Ngân and Speaker Mahajan witnessed the signing of a cooperation agreement between the Vietnamese NA and India’s Lower House, and an agreement on cooperation in peaceful use of atomic energy between the two governments.

A memorandum of understanding between the Vietnam Atomic Energy Institute and India’s Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership, and another on Vietjet Air and Indian Air opening a Vietnam-India air route  were also inked in their presence.

Also yesterday, the top legislator of Việt Nam met with Indian Vice President and Chairman of the Senate Mohammad Hamid Ansari at the latter’s residence.

She said the close-knit relationship between Việt Nam and India was founded by President Hồ Chí Minh and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. It has been nurtured by the countries’ following leaders and peoples.

Appreciating the Indian Senate’s support for the country’s traditional amity and strategic partnership, which was elevated to a comprehensive strategic partnership last September, with Việt Nam, she highlighted the progress in their legislative bodies.

"The Vietnamese NA wants to strengthen bilateral connections and closely cooperate with the Indian parliament at regional and international forums," she said, calling on both sides to beef up cooperation in realising high-level agreements already reached, exchanging delegations, and promoting coordination at multilateral forums.

Meanwhile, Ansari highlighted the longstanding and strong foundation of the Indian-Vietnamese ties, valuing Việt Nam’s development accomplishments and progress in ensuring human rights.

India always attaches importance to its relations with ASEAN member nations and its Government is pushing forward with the “Act East” policy, in which Việt Nam is an important pillar, according to the senate leader.

It supports peace to be kept between countries in the region and around the world, along with the settlement of international disputes, including the East Sea issues, by peaceful means on the basis of the UN Charter and international law.

Agreeing on the host’s opinions, the visiting leader said Việt Nam advocated India’s “Act East” policy and its increasing presence in and connectivity with Southeast Asia and backs India in a bid to win a deserving position in the global arena.

Việt Nam would also support India’s candidacy for a permanent membership in the UN Security Council when this Council admits more permanent members, as well as its participation in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum when APEC removes the suspension of accepting new members with the APEC member economies’ consent, Ngân said. – VNS