Vietnamese leader coming on India visit

India and Vietnam will seek to further boost their close ties with the visit of Nguyen Phu Trong, general secretary of the Communist Party of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, to India Nov 19-22.

General Secretary Phu Trong is coming at the invitation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Both will hold wide-ranging talks on the India-Vietnam strategic partnership and the prime minister will host a banquet in his honour.

The Vietnamese general secretary will call on President Pranab Mukherjee and meet Vice President Hamid Ansari, Speaker of the Lok Sabha Meira Kumar, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid and leaders of Indian political parties. Phu Trong will also visit Mumbai, said an official statement.

The Vietnamese general secretary will meet the business community at an event organised by FICCI, CII and Assocham in Mumbai.

India and Vietnam have close and friendly relations, characterised by shared interests, mutual trust and multi-dimensional cooperation. Our bilateral relations have grown steadily in recent times and we have close cooperation on regional and multilateral issues, the statement said.