Vietnamese visitors included member of the Party’s Central Committee Dao Viet Trung - Head of the President’s office, the ambassador to India - Nguyen Thanh Tan, vice directors of the Academy and its staffs and students.

In his speech, Prof., Dr. Ta Ngoc Tan - member of the Party’s Central Committee, President of the Academy expressed his pleasure to receive the Indian Presidents and other distinguished guests at the Academy and the Opening ceremony of the Indian Studies Center. The Academy’s board of directors decided to establish the center with the aim of realizing the strategic cooperative relation between Vietnam and India step into new height of development and was given the approval of relevant authorities. He said, “With the center being jointly launched by HE Indian President Pranab Mukherjee and HE Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang, this is a very important event, marking a new stage of development of the Academy.” Hopefully, after this visit, the Academy will become one of the most reliable bridge for further strengthening the friendly and traditional ties as well as the comprehensive strategic partnership that exist between the two countries. The Academy expects to promote cooperation with Indian training and research institutes, providing a source of inspiration for the bilateral relationship India - Vietnam in the future.

Indian President Pranab Mukherjee expressed his delight at the opening of the Center. He also mentioned the established mechanisms for cooperation between the Academy and Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore and Indian Institute of Public Administration in New Delhi. He affirmed, “Our governments are strongly committed to promoting people-based diplomacy. The establishment of the Indian Studies Center is evident of this commitment.” He believes the Center will become a leading channel of academic exchanges between the two countries and will contribute to enriching bilateral relations.

Referring to India - Vietnam relations, which were first established in the 2nd century AD, President Mukherjee said that a dynamic strategic partnership covering a wide range of areas of cooperation now exists. The existing dialogue was based on profound mutual understanding and friendship that was developed by the two countries’ leaders. India and Vietnam had similar experience in shaping their respective national identities. They both fought wars to liberate themselves from colonialist rules and they had both achieved their developmental goals and met their people’s needs. India and Vietnam have common views on regional and global issues. The two governments have cooperated very closely with each other at United Nations forums, within the World Trade Organization and a good number of regional and multilateral forums including the ASEAN, East Asia Summit and ASEM, among others. By establishing bilateral cooperation in defense and security, India and Vietnam have aimed to promote peace in the region. The two countries wish to intensify their economic cooperation having seen that they could compliment each other economically, especially in trade and investment. The two governments believe they have created best conditions for increasing exchanges between the two countries’ people and institutions.

In his closing speech, Prof., Dr. Ta Ngoc Tan expressed his sincerest thanks to the fine words and feelings the Indian government and people had towards the Party, State, and people of Vietnam. He emphasized his responsibility for creating most favorable conditions for the Indian Studies Center to operate efficiently so it could realize its commitments and contribute to stronger friendship and cooperation between the two countries.

MA. Nguyen Thi Lan