Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh held an online interaction with Minister of National Defence of Vietnam Sr Lt Gen Phan Van Giang on July 01, 2021. During the interaction, both Ministers reviewed the progress on the current initiatives and expressed commitment to further enhance engagements between the Defence Forces of the two countries under the framework of India-Vietnam Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (2016) and under the guidance of the Joint Vision for Peace, Prosperity and People signed during the Virtual Summit between the Prime Ministers of the two countries in December 2020.Both Ministers acknowledged the significance of the Joint Vision Statement of 2015-20 in strengthening defence cooperation engagements between both the countries thus far and looked forward to concluding the Joint Vision Statement of 2021-25 at the earliest opportunity. The Ministers agreed to initiate measures to enhance cooperation in Defence Industry and Technology domain and look forward to greater synergy in effectively deepening bilateral cooperative engagements across the spectrum. Both Ministers expressed satisfaction at the ongoing activities between the two countries despite the limitations imposed by COVID 19.In a series of tweets, Shri Rajnath Singh termed the relationship between India and Vietnam as strong & effective. He said “India attaches great importance to its bilateral defence cooperation with Vietnam. Both India and Vietnam share a long-standing tradition of helping each other in difficult times. We have achieved substantial progress in defence industry cooperation in recent years.” The Raksha Mantri added that India and Vietnam continue to make forward movement in overcoming the challenges posed by COVID-19. He thanked Sr Lt Gen Phan Van Giangfor inviting him on an official visit to Vietnam, and he looked forward to it.