Together with the attendance of the President of VASS, the meeting also had Assoc. Prof. Dr Dang Nguyen Anh, Vice President of VASS; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ngo Xuan Binh, Director of Institute of Indian and South West Asian Studies; and M.A. Nguyen Thanh Ha, Director of International Cooperation Department
In the meeting, representing as the head of VASS, Prof. Dr Nguyen Quang Thuan congratulated Mr Parvathaneni Harish on his appointment as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of India in Vietnam; presented duties and functions of VASS, main fields and research orientations that were of VASS’ interests such as politics, security, culture, human, the environment, breakthroughs in institutional reformation and development, and so on; briefly introduced the cooperation relationship between VASS and great nations and important international organizations worldwide.
Mentioning the relationships between VASS and Indian partners, the President emphasized traditional partners such as the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSR), Jawaharla Nehru University, and Delhi University. In addition, several institutes under VASS (Institute of Indian and South West Asian Studies, Institute of Chinese Studies…) also have cooperation relationships with various partners, universities and institutes in India. Through different methods like international cooperating and exchanging scholars, the two parties have shared experiences, understanding and concerns. A remarkable event of this cooperation relationship is the third round-table ASEAN – Indian Network of Think-Tanks (AINTT) (with the attendance of Deputy Prime Ministers, Ministers of Foreign Affairs from both ASEAN and India) held by VASS and Embassy of India in Vietnam and Research and Information System for Developing Countries of India (RIS) in August 2014 was successful.
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However, Prof. Dr Nguyen Quang Thuan affirmed that with the scientific potentiality of Vietnam and India, the cooperation needed to be further developed in order to meet the demands from the two parties especially in the situation when cooperation relationship and strategic partnership between Vietnam and India has been enhanced, as well as in India’s Eastward policies, Vietnam plays an integral role in this area. The recent business trip of India’s Prime Minister to Vietnam along with 12 bilateral conventions and agreements between VASS and Indian Council of World Affairs marked a milestone in the partnership between Vietnam and India. Shortly, especially in 2017, which is the 45th year of diplomatic relation between the two countries as well as a 10th year of strategic partnership relation Vietnam – India, the scientific collaboration will be one of the primary tenors towards these events.
Prof. Dr Nguyen Quang Thuan hoped that the Ambassador would contribute to the further impulse of cooperation relationship between VASS and research and education organisations in India; enhance collaboration in scientific research, culture and education in order to strengthen the bilateral relationship, enhance understanding, union and friendship among researchers as well as citizens of the two countries.
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In response to President Nguyen Quang Thuan, Mr Parvathaneni Harish expressed his pleasure to visit and work in VASS and believed in the cooperation between VASS and great nations and important international organizations worldwide. The Ambassador emphasised that social science and social scientific research in particular are some of crucial features in developing and protecting country especially with the long history of VASS. Mr Parvathaneni looked forward to cooperating with institutes under VASS in near future, especially with Institute of Indian and South West Asian Studies and Institute of Chinese Studies,ect. In the recent business trip of India’s Prime Minister, the two Prime Ministers of the two nations agreed to enhance the bilateral relation to the comprehensive strategic partnership. This means that cooperation activities in which scientific research is one of the key fields between the two countries will be enlarged. In 2017, there will be a lot of printed matters and newspaper about the diplomatic relation between the two countries in which VASS and Indian Council of World Affairs are main clues.
The two parties agreed to organise activities for the ceremony of 45 years of diplomatic relation between the two countries as well as 10 years of strategic partnership relation Vietnam – India. VASS will collaborate with Indian Council of World Affairs and Embassy of India in Vietnam to organise an international conference to evaluate of cooperation relationship between Vietnam and India; build the main content of collaboration between VASS and Indian Council of World Affairs based on the recent memorandum of understanding.
The meeting was successful. Prof. Dr Nguyen Quang Thuan and Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish gave souvenirs to each other, which promised better relationship and opportunities of cooperation in the future./.
Nguyen Thu Ha
