New Delhi, Dec 18 - The strategic partnership between India and Vietnam 'will further speed up peace, stability and prosperous development in the region and the world', Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has said.Dung made the remark when visiting Indian Defence Minister A.K. Antony called on him in Hanoi Monday evening to brief him about the series of measures the two countries have taken to consolidate and expand their defence cooperation to take it to newer heights, a defence ministry release said here Tuesday.Antony described his ongoing three-day visit that began Sunday as a continuation of the dialogue that Dung had with the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi in July.The stepped up cooperation was agreed to at a meeting here Monday between Antony and his Vietnamese counterpart Gen. Phung Quang Thanh.Antony announced at the meeting that New Delhi would transfer 5,000 items of naval spares belonging to Petya class of ships to Vietnam to make many of the ageing vessels operational.He also announced the deputation of a four-member team to impart training on UN peacekeeping operations in the first half of next year.The two sides also agreed to set up a joint working group to facilitate the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on defence cooperation.'Hanoi has welcomed the outcome of the talks between the defence ministers of India and Vietnam,' the defence ministry release said.On Tuesday, Antony laid a wreath at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum at Ba Dinh Square in Hanoi before heading for Ho Chi Minh city, as Saigon is now named.The embalmed body of veteran Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh lies in state at the historic location where he had declared independence from French rule on Sep 2, 1945. After his death in 1969, the site was chosen for his mausoleum.Antony spent about an hour at the Presidential Palace complex adjacent to the mausoleum.The majestic Presidential Palace was built by the French at the beginning of the 20h century. However, when the iconic leader Ho Chi Minh became president in 1954, he considered it too opulent to live in. Instead, he decided to reside in an austere cottage in the same complex for the rest of his life.
(c) Indo-Asian News Service
