Vietnam important pillar of India's Act East Policy, Indo-Pacific vision: Om Birla

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Wednesday called on Communist Party of Vietnam's secretary general Nguyen Phu Trong and said the ASEAN country is an important pillar of India's Act East Policy and Indo-Pacific vision.

Underlining the two countries' shared vision in the defense sector, Birla said the Indo-Vietnam defense partnership is growing rapidly in areas like defense industry, maritime security, capacity building programmes and UN peacekeeping.

He said these defense ties are a major contributor to peace, security and stability of the Indo-Pacific region and urged the Vietnamese leader to make efforts to further strengthen this strategic partnership, the Lok Sabha Secretariat said in a statement.

Birla is on a visit to Vietnam. He arrived in the country on Tuesday.

In his meeting with Trong, Birla noted that Vietnam is one of India's closest partners and ''an important pillar of our Act East Policy and Indo-Pacific vision".

The Lok Sabha Speaker further said India and Vietnam share a common outlook on global and regional issues.

About trade and economic ties, Birla said he was happy to note that India and Vietnam strive to build reliable and strong supply chains, adding that despite the disruptions by the Covid pandemic last year, the bilateral trade between the two countries stood at over USD 13 billion, the statement said.

Lauding the long-term and mutually beneficial partnership between the two countries in the energy sector, he said ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) has been involved in offshore power projects in Vietnam for more than three decades and hoped that its contract would be renewed for another 15 years.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)