India and Vietnam Signs Civil Nuclear Pact Along With Three Other Agreements

India and Vietnam signed a Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement (N-Pact) in New Delhi on December 9, 2016, in the presence of Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and President of Vietnam’s National Assembly Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan.

• The MoU was signed by Sekhar Basu, Secretary of Department of Atomic Energy and Pham Cong Tac, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology of Vietnam to strengthen the bi-lateral cooperation between the two countries.
• Vietnam delegate Ngan also met the Prime Minister Narendra Modi who said the Agreement on Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy will further strengthen the comprehensive strategic partnership between India and Vietnam.
• The agreement was decided during Modi’s visit to Hanoi in September 2016 when PM Modi visted Vietnam for comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the two countries.
• It was the first prime ministerial visit from India to Vietnam after Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s visit in 2001.
• Earlier in 1986, the two countries signed a pact in the civil nuclear field but were limited to training.
• However, the new agreement includes research on nuclear reactors which would get activated once India gets membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group. Vietnam is the 14th country with which India signed the civil nuclear deal.
• In November 2016, India signed a civil nuclear deal with Japan when PM Modi visited Tokyo.
• The other co countries with which India has signed civil nuclear agreements include the US, Russia, Australia, Canada, France, Britain, South Korea, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Namibia and Argentina.

Three other agreements were also signed between the two countries.

1. Enhance aviation links,
2. Jointly work in the area of energy efficiency
3. Promotion of parliamentary cooperation.

The two countries signed a Cooperation Agreement between the Lok Sabha of the Republic of India and the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.It was signed between Lok Sabha Speaker sumitra Mahajan and Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan.

• An MoU on ‘Promotion of traffic between Vietnam and India and sharing of best practices in airline operation, ground handling procedure and management’ was also signed between Air India and Vietjet Aviation Joint Stock Company.
• Apart from this an MoU was aso signed between the Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a PSU under the Power Ministry, and Vietnam Electricity (EVN) on ‘Developing a Partnership to Jointly Work in the Area of Energy Efficiency’.
• It was signed by Satish C Mehta, Senior Advisor in EESL, and Duong Quang Thanh, Chairman of Vietnam Electricity.
• All the four agreements aimed at enhancing the participation of the two countries in specified sectors like defence, security, energy, exploration, non conventional energy for mutual benefit.

VIETNAM

• Capital: Hanoi
• Currency: Vietnamese dong
• President: Tran Dại Quang
• Prime minister: Nguyen Xuan Phuc