India, Vietnam and Japan should have better cooperation on

Calling for better cooperation between India, Vietnam and Japan on issues with China, Vietnamese leader Nguyen Xuan Thang today said it was needed for strategic balance in the region.
"There is a need for better cooperation between the three countries by sharing their experiences on how they deal with China on border issues as the three countries face similar kind of problems," said Thang, a central committee member of Vietnam's ruling Communist Party.
"India means a lot for Vietnam. India is a friend of Vietnam. We have military and defence cooperation. It has to be maintained in order to maintain strategic balance in the region," Thang told reporters here.

Vietnam and Japan both have been facing problems with China over territorial claims on the South China sea.
Asked whether the three countries should form a bloc against China, Thang said "no I don't think it would be good to form a bloc against any country as that might lead to a conflict situation."
On the decline of Communist parties in India after the last Lok Sabha Polls, Thang said there was a need for reforms among them following the principles of Marxism.

"I have not followed the conditions of Indian Communist parties and elections so closely. But it seems that the election results reflect two things -- the Communist parties must reform themselves to meet the requirements for development and the second thing is to meet requirements and aspirations of the people.

"I think a Communist party, if it calls itself a Communist party, should be based on Marxism, but this doesn't mean that it must not update with the present changed situation.
"For example, in Vietnam when we adopted the Soviet economic style model we refused to adopt market economy but with reform we chose to develop market economy but we call it socialist-oriented market economy," Thang, who is the president of the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS) added.