Hanoi: Calling cooperation in the field of security as an important pillar in bilateral cooperation, Vietnam on Thursday urged India to continue supporting the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security to improve its law enforcement capacity through various programmes and upgradation and purchase of advanced and modern equipment.

Welcoming India’s Deputy National Security Advisor Pavan Kapoor at his office in Hanoi, Politburo member and Vietnam’s Minister of Public Security General Luong Tam Quang affirmed that India-Vietnam Comprehensive Strategic Partnership is developing positively with a solid foundation of relations and high political trust.

The meeting, held shortly after the third India-Vietnam Security Dialogue co-chaired by the senior Indian diplomat and Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of Public Security Lt. Gen. Pham The Tung, focused on enhancing high-level exchanges to convey the messages of the leaders of the two countries.

The Vietnamese minister expressed his delight at the positive results of the security dialogue, asserting that it is a good opportunity for the two sides to concretize the content of cooperation to further develop the relationship between the two countries in general and between the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security and the National Security Council of India in particular.

He urged sharing of more strategic information on issues of mutual concern, strengthening cooperation in preventing and combating transnational crimes, and coordinating training to improve capacity. Quang hoped that the two sides would create favourable conditions and coordinate to ensure security and safety for each other’s citizens when living, studying, working and travelling in each country; ensure safety for high-level visits between the two sides; negotiate and sign cooperation documents on the fight against transnational crimes such as high-tech crimes, drug crimes, human trafficking crimes, etc.

“On this occasion, Minister Luong Tam Quang also requested the National Security Council of India to continue supporting the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security to improve its law enforcement capacity through long-term and short-term scholarship programmes; provide support programmes for the Ministry of Public Security to upgrade and purchase advanced and modern equipment, to further meet the requirements of ensuring national security, maintaining social order and safety in the new situation,” read a statement issued by Vietnam’s Public Security ministry.

India’s Deputy NSA, meanwhile, affirmed that the National Security Council of India will continue to promote security cooperation with the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam, contributing to the effective implementation of the Action Programme to implement the 2024-2028 India-Vietnam Comprehensive Partnership, creating an important foundation for the two countries to further strengthen their cooperative relations in the coming times.

Earlier, the two sides exchanged views on global and regional security and implementation of aspects of the Action Plan for the India-Vietnam Comprehensive Strategic Partnership during the ministerial security dialogue. Speaking at the opening of the discussions, Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of Public Security Pham The Tung emphasised that, since the two countries upgraded their Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2016, Vietnam and India have achieved many positive results in cooperation in the fields of politics, diplomacy, security, defence, culture, society, and people-to-people exchanges.

“Recently, during Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s visit to India in August 2024, the two countries continued to implement the Action Programme to implement the India-Vietnam Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for the new period of 2024-2028 with many good prospects,” the minister said in his opening remarks at the meeting.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) detailed that the two sides discussed strengthening cooperation in areas such as countering terrorism; combating organised crime; and sharing of information between law enforcement agencies during the security dialogue that is held biennially under the MoU for cooperation between the National Security Council Secretariat of India and the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam signed in 2016.

“Both sides agreed to deepen collaboration on economic dimensions of security and emerging technologies, including cyber-crime. They also discussed strengthening training and capacity building cooperation, including in UN Peacekeeping,” the MEA stated.