Minister of National Defense General Ngo Xuan Lich made the statement at a reception for outgoing Indian Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish on June 17 at the Headquarters of the Ministry of National Defense.

General Lich highly appreciated the Indian Ambassador’s contributions to promoting the bilateral relations including defense cooperation during his term of office in Vietnam. He affirmed that the bilateral defense cooperation has developed in an intensive and effective manner over the past time, and helped the two sides have high political trust which has been reflected in high-level visits of leaders of Defense Ministries, defense dialogue and exchanges between Vietnamese and Indian naval ships.

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General Ngo Xuan Lich and outgoing Indian Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish

The Vietnamese Defense Minister voiced support to the Indian Government’s Act East Policy and expected that India will support Vietnam in chairing ASEAN in 2020 and hosting the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting-Plus (ADMM+) mechanism. He also hoped, the outgoing Indian Ambassador in any future positions will further contribute to strengthening cooperative relations between the two countries.

For his part, outgoing Indian Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish recalled that India and Vietnam lifted their relations to a comprehensive strategic partnership during the Vietnam visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2016. He expressed his honor to be one of the contributors to the development of bilateral defense cooperation and recalled that during his tenure, Indian Defense Minister paid a visit to Vietnam in 2016 and his Vietnamese counterpart visited India the same year.

He affirmed that under the leadership of Defense Minister General Ngo Xuan Lich, Vietnam-Indian defense cooperation has been strongly expanded in different fields, including naval officer and pilot training. The Indian diplomat said that India is willing to support Vietnam in its participation in UN peacekeeping operations, and affirmed that Vietnam is India’s close and strong partner in the Asia-Pacific region.

Translated by Tran Hoai