At a recent meeting with ASEAN journalists, Mr. Rajesh Agrawal, from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry of India, addressed India's trade deficit with Vietnam.

According to data from Vietnam's General Department of Customs, bilateral trade between Vietnam and India in the first seven months of 2024 reached approximately $8.67 billion, a 4.5% increase compared to the same period in 2023. Vietnam's exports to India reached $5.37 billion, a 15.2% growth year-on-year; imports amounted to $3.3 billion.

"Trade between the two countries is steadily growing. Since the ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA) was signed in 2009, bilateral trade relations between India and Vietnam have improved significantly. There are many opportunities for both sides to further boost trade," he said, acknowledging that limited tariff preferences within AITIGA restrict Indian exporters' access to the Vietnamese market.

"We hope that when AITIGA is revised, the trade relationship between the two sides will become even deeper, and we can unlock the potential of bilateral trade," the Indian official said, suggesting increased cooperation between the two countries in green hydrogen and solar energy.

"India will become a green hydrogen production hub, and certainly a portion of its output will be exported to the international market. That could be an area for the two sides to cooperate. Solar energy is also an area where India is leading. We have a large capacity for solar panel production and have reached 200 gigawatts of renewable energy. These will be areas where investment and trade will increase in the coming decades," Mr. Agrawal emphasized.

When asked about Vietnam-India bilateral cooperation opportunities, India's Secretary East, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Jaideep Mazumdar mentioned strengthening supply chain resilience.

"Vietnam has great strengths in industrial manufacturing, and so does India. The world is seeking to improve the robustness of supply chains and avoid dependence on single sources of supply. Therefore, I believe that is an area where we can truly cooperate," he said.

Regarding competition between the two countries in attracting manufacturing activities shifting from China, Mr. Mazumdar said, "Manufacturing is a very large sector, and many countries depend on manufacturing in Asia. Therefore, competition between the two countries is not in a way that disadvantages each other. The market is large enough for both of our countries."