Indian FM: India, Vietnam expect to increase bilateral trade, investment

 Indian Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj said here on Monday that she expected India and Vietnam to double or triple bilateral trade and investment revenues from the current level.
Swaraj made the remark at a meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in capital Hanoi on Monday during her visit to the country, the website of Vietnamese government reported.
India and Vietnam should speed up progress to soon conclude the bilateral free trade agreement negotiation, said the visiting Indian official, adding that the two countries' airliners should soon open direct air routes.
Stating that Indian businesses are interested in Vietnam's major infrastructure development projects investment, the Indian foreign minister said at the meeting that, India wishes to reach cooperation agreements with Vietnam in areas of catfish farming, corn and rice production.
The Indian guest conveyed the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to visit India in early October to discuss major orientations to boost bilateral relations.
The Vietnamese host, for his part, said at the meeting that Vietnam wishes to promote strategic partnership with India in all fields such as politics-diplomacy, economics, trade, investment, security, defense, education-training, science-technology and culture among others.
Expressing that Vietnam welcomes the upcoming visit by Indian president to Vietnam in September, Dung thanked Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the invitation of official visit to India and said that these important events will bring Vietnam- India strategic partnership to a new height.
Vietnam supports the India's "Look East" policy and the relations between India and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), said Dung.
Indian Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj is on tour in Vietnam from Sunday to Tuesday at the invitation of her Vietnamese counterpart Pham Binh Minh.