Strong outcomes expected from PM Modi's Vietnam visit: S Jaishankar

Stating that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Vietnam is a bilateral one, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar has said that very strong outcomes can be expected from the visit.

Prime Minister Modi will embark on a two nation tour to Vietnam and China on Friday.

"Prime Minister's visit to Vietnam is a bilateral visit. It is a long standing invitation. We will see what come outs of that tomorrow, but you can expect very strong outcomes. Then after that he is going to G20," Jaishankar told ANI.

In the first leg of his four day visit, Prime Minister Modi will reach Vietnamese capital Hanoi on Friday.

Secretary (East) in the External Affairs Ministry, Preeti Saran had on Thursday in a media briefing said that during the visit, Prime Minister Modi will meet President Tran Dai Quang and Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

She added that Vietnam is India's important strategic partner and the visit is aimed at further strengthening bilateral ties including defence, security and trade.

From Vietnam, Prime Minister Modi will leave for China on Saturday evening to attend the G-20 Summit in Hangzhou.

Secretary (West) in the MEA, Sujata Mehta said, during the visit, India will take up issues like cross-border mobility of professionals, terror financing, tax evasion and reduction in remittance transaction cost among others.

Meanwhile, talking about the ongoing Indian Ocean Conference 2016, Jaishankar said that such event raises consciousness about the Indian Ocean among the member countries.

"It brings different players with different interests together to the same platform to the next change. At the end of the day Indian Ocean will only work if there is a consultation and cooperation among the state and to do that first you should meet, first we should exchange ideas. That's what this is about," he added.

The conference will focus on the defence, economic, cultural and environmental matters of the region.