The Union External Affairs Minister, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee had two bilateral meetings on the sidelines of ASEM Meeting at Hamburg (Germany) yesterday. The first meeting was with the Foreign Minister and the Deputy Foreign Minister of Vietnam. The two Ministers reviewed bilateral relations and looked at concrete steps that needed to be taken to expand these relations. In particular, they hoped that India and Vietnam could reach the bilateral trade target of US $ 2 billion by 2010.
Mr. Mukherjee reiterated India’s desire to cooperate with Vietnam in the hydro-carbon sector and the power sector. This cooperation could be facilitated by offering soft loans to Vietnam as well as credit loan. Foreign Minister of Vietnam discussed the forthcoming visit of Prime Minister of Vietnam to India. He also took the opportunity to reiterate Vietnam’s support for India’s candidature to the permanent membership of the UN Security Council.
The second meeting was with Mr. Javier Solana, Secretary General of the European Council and High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy. Mr. Mukherjee and Mr. Solana reviewed India-EU relations and expressed their keenness to intensify political contacts. More frequent and informal contacts were agreed upon.
They had an exchange of views on the Iran nuclear issue. Mr. Mukherjee also briefed Mr. Solana on the 14th SAARC Summit and positive developments like the setting up of the SAARC Development Fund, South Asian University and SAARC Food Bank. He also briefed Mr. Solana on the India-Pakistan composite dialogue and the CBMs that have already been put in place between the two countries.
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NSD/MK
(Release ID :28305)