PM Visit to Vietnam and China

India, Vietnam sign 12 agreements

India and Vietnam signed 12 agreements, signalling a strong upward push in their strategic ties in the field of defence, IT, space, double taxation and sharing white shipping information.

• This pacts  will provide a new direction, momentum and substance to the bilateral cooperation and also contribute to stability, security and prosperity in this region. These pacts are as follows,
• India’s L&T will build offshore high speed patrol boats for Vietnamese Coast Guards and another agreement was signed on programme of cooperation in UN peacekeeping matters.
• An agreement for Indian Navy and Vietnam Navy will cooperate in sharing of white shipping information.
• An agreement on exploration and uses of outer space for peaceful purposes,
• An agreement on avoidance of double taxation, health cooperation, IT cooperation, cyber security and agreement on contract and design, building of boat in India, equipment supply and technology transfer.
• An MoU between Vietnamese Academy of Social Science and Indian Council of World Affairs.
• An MoU between BIS and STAMEQ for mutual recognition of standards,
• An agreement on setting up of sustainable IT Infra for advanced IT training and
• Protocol between Vietnam and India on celebrating 2017 as ‘The Year Of Friendship’ .

India grants $500 million to Vietnam to bolster defence ties

• India PM Narendra Modi extended a USD 500 million line of credit to Vietnam to deepen their defence cooperation and signed 12 agreements including a deal to construct offshore patrol boats, in a bid of China’s muscle flexing in the disputed South China Sea and ’emerging regional challenges’.
• India and Vietnam share borders and large trade volumes with China and have repeatedly locked horns with Beijing, over the territorial disputes in the Himalayas and the South China Sea, respectively.
• It is noted that it was unclear if the latest loan included the $100 million India had previously made available to Vietnam for four yet-to-be-built patrol vessels in a deal agreed in late 2014.
• This move is considered to scale up and strengthen our bilateral engagement. As two important countries in this region, it necessary to further ties on regional and international issues of common concern.
• It is noted that the Prime Minister also announced a grant of $5 million for the establishment of a Software Park in the Telecommunications University in Nha Trang.

PM Modi Gifted Chinese Translations Of Ancient Indian Texts

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi  presented with a hand-painted oil-painting of himself by a Chinese painter and Chinese translations of ancient Indian texts including Bhagavad Gita and essays of Swami Vivekananda. 
• Modi gifted a set of 10 Chinese translations of the ancient Indian texts by Indophile Professor Wang Zhicheng, who teaches Hindi at the prestigious Peking University and the translations include Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Narada’s Bhakti Sutras, Yoga Vasistha among others.
• The Prime Minister was also gifted a portrait of himself by Professor Shen Shu from Hangzhou’s Zhejiang Kaiming Art Gallery and the painting took nearly four months to get completed