NEW DELHI, India / MENA Newswire / — India and Vietnam upgraded relations to an Enhanced Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and set a new bilateral trade target of $25 billion by 2030 after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks in New Delhi on May 6 with Vietnam’s Communist Party General Secretary and President To Lam. The state visit produced 13 memorandums of understanding spanning rare earths, digital payments, digital technologies, tourism, culture, auditing and city-to-city cooperation, highlighting a push to tighten supply chains and expand coordination in the Indo-Pacific.
To Lam was in India from May 5 to May 7 at Modi’s invitation, with engagements that included a ceremonial reception at Rashtrapati Bhavan, tributes at Raj Ghat, meetings with President Droupadi Murmu and a policy address at the Indian Council of World Affairs, according to India’s Press Information Bureau. Modi and To Lam oversaw exchanges of bilateral documents and reviewed what both sides described as wide-ranging cooperation across political, economic and security areas.
Economic cooperation was a central theme of the Enhanced Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. Modi said India and Vietnam will work toward raising two-way trade to $25 billion by 2030, after bilateral trade exceeded $16 billion as of March 2026, according to media reports. India and Vietnam also announced new agricultural market openings, including exports of Indian grapes to Vietnam and Vietnamese durian to India, and said they would step up collaboration in areas such as critical minerals and energy.
Rare earths and related “new-age technologies” featured among the signed agreements. India’s IREL (India) Ltd. and Vietnam’s Institute for Technology of Radioactive and Rare Elements signed an MoU to expand cooperation in rare earth elements, while the joint statement also referenced ongoing collaboration on peaceful uses of atomic energy. The statement cited Vietnam’s invitation for India to participate in its nuclear power sector and noted discussions on continued supply of cobalt-60 from India, alongside work toward an ASEAN-India tracking, data reception and processing facility in Vietnam.
Digital payments and QR interoperability
Financial and digital connectivity agreements included an MoU between the Reserve Bank of India and the State Bank of Vietnam on payment systems and innovation in digital payments. A separate pact between NPCI International Payments Limited and Vietnam’s National Payment Corporation aims to develop cross-border QR code interoperability to enable payments. India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Vietnam’s Ministry of Science and Technology also signed an MoU on digital technologies, while India’s Central Drugs Standard Control Organization and Vietnam’s Drug Administration agreed to cooperate on medical products regulation covering pharmaceuticals, biological products, medical devices and cosmetics.
On security, the leaders agreed to deepen defence policy dialogue, joint exercises, information sharing and defence industrial cooperation and to enhance defence systems procurement between the two countries, the joint statement said. It welcomed progress in India’s defence lines of credit for Vietnam and cited existing bilateral arrangements including a Mutual Logistics Support Agreement and an agreement on submarine search and rescue support. Vietnam said it would assign an international liaison officer to India’s Information Fusion Centre – Indian Ocean Region in Gurugram to strengthen maritime domain awareness, and Modi welcomed Vietnam joining the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative.
My Son heritage support and next steps
Tourism and culture were reinforced through an MoU on tourism cooperation and a 2026-2030 cultural exchange programme, with both sides encouraging expanded air connectivity as direct flights increase. India reiterated support for conservation work at Vietnam’s UNESCO-listed My Son heritage site and announced plans for a site interpretation centre there. Education and heritage agreements included Indian studies chairs under the Indian Council for Cultural Relations and a project to digitise Cham manuscripts of Indian origin preserved in Vietnam.
In the joint statement, the leaders said they would coordinate in multilateral forums including the United Nations, backed reforms of international institutions, and reiterated Vietnam’s support for India’s bid for permanent membership of a reformed UN Security Council. They urged progress toward an effective South China Sea code of conduct consistent with international law, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and said they would pursue concerted action against terrorism and terror financing. To Lam invited Modi to visit Vietnam, closing out the visit that anchored the Enhanced Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.