Antony calls on Vietnamese Prime Minister

Defence Minister A K Antony met Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in Hanoi, Vietnam, last evening.

New Delhi, Dec 18 : Defence Minister A K Antony met Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in Hanoi, Vietnam, last evening.

Dung complimented Antony for announcing a series of measures to consolidate and expand defence cooperation between the two countries.

"The strategic partnership between India and Vietnam 'will further speed up peace, stability and prosperous development in the region and the world'," said Dung.

Describing his ongoing visit as a continuation of the dialogue that Dung had with Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh in New Delhi last July, Antony said, "The two countries are in the process of setting up a Joint Working Group for drawing up a comprehensive MoU on Defence Cooperation."

Over the years Indo-Vietnamese Defence cooperation has grown steadily through visits by military delegations, ship visits from India and training of Vietnamese Defence personnel in India.

The Indo-Vietnamese bilateral relationship got a boost in 1994 with the signing of the Protocol on Defence cooperation.

Antony will return home on Wednesday.

ANI