India-Vietnam elevate ties to Enhanced Comprehensive Strategic Partnership; $25B trade target by 2030

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President To Lam elevated their ties to an Enhanced Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and set a $25 billion annual trade target by 2030. They signed up to 13 agreements spanning digital payments, rare earth minerals, pharmaceuticals, education, banking and culture. They discussed the Indo-Pacific situation amid China's assertiveness and agreed to strengthen rule-of-law, peace, stability, and prosperity, including enhanced defence and security cooperation and energy and critical minerals initiatives. They agreed to update the India-ASEAN trade agreement by year-end, strengthen financial connectivity by linking India's UPI with Vietnam's fast payment system, and expand State-to-State and city-to-city cooperation. They noted prior defence engagements, including a submarine search, rescue framework and defence industry collaboration, and welcomed Vietnam's condemnation of the Pahalgam terrorist attack.

President To Lam began his first State visit to India, leading a high-level delegation for a three-day trip.

Last year, India and Vietnam inked a pact to set up a framework for submarine search, rescue and support mechanism and signed a letter of intent to strengthen bilateral defence industry collaboration.

About a decade before the 2026 talks, Vietnam became India's first comprehensive strategic partner in ASEAN, marking the start of a deepening strategic relationship.