Cultural cooperation drives Vietnam-India ties: seminar

New Delhi, November 7 (VNA) – Vietnam and India hold great potential for cooperation with cultural links playing an important role in promoting their affiliation in other fields, heard a seminar in Kolkata city, India’s West Bengal state, on November 4. The seminar was held by the Vietnamese Embassy in India in conjunction with the National Library of Kolkata (NLK) and the India-Vietnam Solidarity Committee (IVSC) in West Bengal . Addressing the event, IVSC President Geetesh Sharma highlighted milestones of cooperation and friendship between the two countries, especially sentiments of citizens of Kolkata city and India in general towards Vietnam during its struggle against foreign invaders in the 1970s. NLK Director Arun Kumar Chakraborty called for the Vietnamese Embassy’s collaboration in providing new books on Vietnam’s socio-economic development for the library, helping increase mutual understanding between the two countries’ people, particularly young generations. Minister at the Vietnamese Embassy in India Tran Quang Tuyen stressed that cultural cooperation is one of the five pillars of the Vietnam-India strategic partnership. India’s “Act East” policy and the elevation of the bilateral ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership will create favourable conditions for the two sides to tap their potential and strengths in order to foster the relationship, he said. Tuyen said the embassy is working on a plan to organise cultural activities in Kolkata and New Delhi marking the 45 th anniversary of the bilateral diplomatic ties (January 7, 1972), contributing to boosting cultural links and people-to-people exchange between the two countries. At the end of the seminar, Geetesh Sharma introduced his book titled “Da Nang: The city of wonder” in which the writer expresses his impressions at dramatic changes in Da Nang over the past 20 years. This is one of the tens of English books about Vietnam written by Geetesh Sharma./.