President Ram Nath Kovind and Vietnamese  President Nguyen Phu Trong  exchange greetings at a meeting at Government House in Hanoi, Vietnam, Tuesday, Nov 20, 2018

NEW DELHI: India and Vietnam during ongoing visit to President Ram Nath Kovind to Hanoi on Tuesday agreed to further strengthen bilateral cooperation across sectors including defence, peaceful uses of atomic energy and outer space, science and technology, oil and gas, infrastructure development, agriculture and innovation-based sectors.

Four MOUs in the fields of communications, education and trade and investment were signed to take bilateral agenda forward.

"We committed to further deepen our defence and security cooperation. I reiterated India’s commitment to provide training support for Vietnam Armed Forces. We also reviewed the implementation of the Line of Credit of US$ 100 million for building high-speed patrol vessels for Vietnamese Border Guards. My talks with President Phu Trong were extensive and productive. Our discussions covered the full range of bilateral and multilateral cooperation. We reiterated the importance of building a peaceful and prosperous Indo-Pacific region on the basis of respect for national sovereignty and international law," Kovind said in a statement after the visit.

"As Comprehensive Strategic Partners, India and Vietnam have a strong bilateral relationship based on mutual trust, understanding, convergence of views on regional and international issues and strong cooperation in regional and multilateral fora.

Vietnam, is a strategic pillar of India’s Act East Policy, and Delhi's key interlocutor in ASEAN.