Speaking at the meeting, Associate Professor Le Bo Linh welcomed Dr. Vashisht as a leading Indian expert on international economics and regional value chains. He highlighted the importance of the Vietnam India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and emphasized that stronger academic cooperation and policy dialogue between research institutions provide valuable insights to inform economic development strategies in both countries amid rapid shifts in the global geoeconomic landscape.
Representing AIC RIS, Dr. Vashisht praised Vietnam’s dynamic role in ASEAN and global supply chains. He underscored the ASEAN India Centre’s role in connecting and advancing economic, trade, and investment cooperation initiatives, and expressed his interest in establishing regular, substantive research collaboration with IESS.
In an atmosphere of openness and trust, the two sides discussed three main areas for future cooperation:
- Joint research: Undertaking collaborative research projects to promote sustainable and effective economic and trade relations between Vietnam and India.
- Policy advice and recommendations: Preparing strategic policy reports for the two governments, focusing on addressing trade barriers, strengthening bilateral and multilateral cooperation mechanisms particularly the ASEAN India framework and facilitating two-way trade and investment.
- Academic exchanges: Promoting scholar exchanges, jointly organizing conferences and policy forums, and sharing economic research data.
The meeting concluded in a spirit of friendship and mutual understanding. Both sides agreed to take early steps to translate their discussions into concrete activities, strengthening the research basis for policy advice and reinforcing the economic and trade pillar of Vietnam India relations.
