India and Vietnam Declare 2027 as Friendship Year at 19th Joint Commission Meeting, Set $25 Billion Trade Target by 2030

India and Vietnam will observe 2027 as the Year of India-Vietnam Friendship to mark 55 years of diplomatic relations since 7 January 1972, with the decision announced at the 19th India-Vietnam Joint Commission Meeting (JCM) in New Delhi on 14 September 2026. The meeting was co-chaired by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Vietnam’s Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung and reaffirmed the shared target to raise bilateral trade to $25 billion by 2030. The declaration links a symbolic anniversary celebration with a concrete economic roadmap that builds on the Enhanced Comprehensive Strategic Partnership agreed in May 2026.

What Was Decided at the 19th India-Vietnam Joint Commission Meeting?

The 19th India-Vietnam Joint Commission Meeting (JCM) on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technological Cooperation was held in New Delhi on 14 September 2026. The Joint Commission Meeting is the main institutional mechanism that reviews the full range of bilateral cooperation and is co-chaired by the two foreign ministers. In New Delhi, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Vietnam’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Le Hoai Trung led their respective delegations, which included officials from ministries handling trade, defence, energy, science, culture and technology.

Both ministers described the meeting as productive and outcome oriented. They reviewed progress since the 18th JCM held in Hanoi in October 2023 and expressed satisfaction at the upward trajectory of ties. At the end of the talks, the two ministers signed the Minutes of the 19th Session, which records the agreed outcomes and work plan.

Two headline decisions stood out. First, 2027 will be observed as the Year of India-Vietnam Friendship to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the establishment of full diplomatic relations on 7 January 1972. Second, both sides recommitted to the target of raising bilateral trade to $25 billion by 2030, a goal first announced during Vietnamese leader To Lam’s state visit to India in May 2026 and reaffirmed in New Delhi.

Beyond these announcements, the JCM covered a broad agenda. The ministers discussed strengthening political, defence and security cooperation, including an expanded supply of Made-in-India defence articles, and held detailed talks on trade, investment and supply chains with a focus on removing market access barriers. They agreed to expand access for marine products, agricultural goods and pharmaceuticals, deepen energy cooperation including in critical minerals and rare earths, improve financial, port and air connectivity, and promote heritage conservation and cultural projects. Regional cooperation, multilateral coordination and people-to-people exchanges also featured, with Vietnam reaffirmed as a key pillar of India’s Act East Policy, Vision MAHASAGAR and Indo-Pacific outlook. The two sides agreed to hold the next JCM at a mutually convenient date.

The JCM took place alongside intensified high-level engagement. A day earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Vietnam’s Prime Minister Le Minh Hung on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in New Delhi, where Vietnam participated as a Partner Country. The two leaders reviewed the upgraded partnership and welcomed Vietnam’s support for India’s 2026 BRICS Chairmanship.

Why 2027? 55 Years of Diplomatic Relations and the Road to Enhanced Comprehensive Strategic Partnership

India and Vietnam share a historically close relationship rooted in anti-colonial solidarity. Leaders Mahatma Gandhi and President Ho Chi Minh exchanged messages during their independence struggles, and India served as Co-Chairman of the International Commission for Supervision and Control formed after the Geneva Accord of 1954. India maintained consulate-level ties with both North Vietnam and South Vietnam before establishing full diplomatic relations with a unified Vietnam on 7 January 1972. The year 2027 therefore marks 55 years of that formal diplomatic tie, following the 50th anniversary celebrated in 2022.

The partnership has grown through clear institutional steps. India granted Most Favoured Nation status to Vietnam in 1975, signed a bilateral trade agreement in 1978, and created the Indo-Vietnam Joint Business Council in 1993. In July 2007, during Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s visit to India, ties were raised to a Strategic Partnership, India’s first such partnership within ASEAN. In September 2016, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Vietnam, the relationship was elevated to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

The next decade added guiding frameworks. The Joint Vision for Peace, Prosperity and People was adopted at the Virtual Summit of the two prime ministers in December 2020. A Plan of Action for 2024 to 2028 to implement the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership was agreed when Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh visited India from 30 July to 1 August 2024. In May 2026, during the state visit of General Secretary and President To Lam to New Delhi, the two sides upgraded ties again to an Enhanced Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (ECSP). Vietnam became the first country in Southeast Asia to share this highest level of partnership with India. The two leaders also issued a Joint Statement that set trade, defence, technology and regional cooperation as core pillars.

The Friendship Year builds on this momentum and on the 10th anniversary of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2026. It is expected to feature cultural festivals, academic exchanges, business forums, youth programmes and heritage projects that recall shared Buddhist and Cham links.

Trade and Economic Ties: Understanding the $25 Billion Target by 2030

The $25 billion bilateral trade target by 2030 is the central economic commitment reaffirmed at the 19th JCM. The goal was first announced on 6 May 2026 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President To Lam after talks in New Delhi, where 13 Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) were signed covering digital payments, pharmaceuticals regulation, customs, education, tourism, culture and rare earths. The JCM in September reviewed implementation and agreed to better use economic complementarities, remove market access barriers and make supply chains more resilient.

Current trade provides the baseline. Bilateral trade stood at about $5.43 billion in 2016 when the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership was formed and doubled to about $16.46 billion in 2025, according to official data cited during To Lam’s May visit. The Indian fiscal year ending March 2026 recorded trade of more than $16 billion, with India’s exports around $6.1 billion and Vietnam’s exports to India around $10.3 billion. In the first five months of 2026, trade reached $8.37 billion, up 28.4% year on year, with Vietnam’s exports to India at $4.94 billion and India’s exports to Vietnam at $3.4 billion. In the first half of 2026, trade crossed $10 billion, about 60% of the 2025 total, leaving Vietnam with a surplus of roughly $1.5 billion in that period.

The composition of trade shows complementarity. India’s exports to Vietnam include engineering goods, automobile parts, iron and steel, machinery, cotton, maize, animal feed ingredients, bovine meat, marine products, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and minerals. India’s imports from Vietnam are dominated by electrical and electronic equipment, machinery and mechanical appliances, inorganic chemicals, plastics, copper, rubber, coffee, tea, spices, iron and steel articles, footwear and garments.

Market access was a key JCM focus. The May 2026 MoU between the two drug regulators is meant to increase access for Indian medicines in Vietnam, while simplified procedures will make it easier for Indian agricultural, fisheries and animal products including grapes and pomegranates to enter Vietnam, with Vietnamese pomelos gaining access to India in return. Both sides also agreed to link India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) with Vietnam’s payment network through the National Payments Corporation of India, a step that would ease business and tourist payments.

Other pillars support the trade leap. The ASEAN-India Free Trade Agreement, in effect since 1 January 2010, already governs much of the tariff regime, and the two sides discussed better use of that framework alongside new cooperation on critical minerals and rare earths through an MoU between IREL (India) Limited and Vietnam’s Institute for Technology of Radioactive and Rare Elements (VINATOM). Cooperation on energy, port development, air connectivity, supply chain resilience and double taxation avoidance was also reviewed. Officials noted that strong determination on both sides will be needed to move from about $16 billion today to $25 billion by 2030, an increase of more than 50 percent in five years.

How Is Defence and Security Cooperation Expanding?

The 19th JCM reaffirmed that defence and security cooperation is a key pillar of the Enhanced Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. The two ministers agreed to strengthen political, defence and security links and to increase the supply and co-production of Made-in-India defence articles. This builds on a defence framework guided by the MoU on Defence Cooperation of 2009, the Joint Vision on Defence Cooperation of 2015 and the Joint Vision Statement on India-Vietnam Defence Partnership towards 2030 agreed in June 2022 during the visit of India’s Defence Minister to Vietnam. The two sides also signed an MoU on Mutual Logistics Support, the first such logistics pact Vietnam has signed with any country, which allows reciprocal access to logistics facilities.

The most visible recent step is the BrahMos programme. In March 2026, the two countries signed a contract valued at about $629 million (around ₹5,800 crore) for the shore-based BrahMos supersonic cruise missile coastal defence system for Vietnam, including training, technical assistance and logistics support. Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh confirmed in May 2026 at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore that the deal had been signed. Vietnam will become the second ASEAN buyer of BrahMos after the Philippines, which signed a $375 million contract in 2022. In September 2026, Defence Secretary Singh and Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of National Defence Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Truong Thang met in New Delhi and agreed to accelerate technology sharing, joint initiatives and defence industrial collaboration, including talks at Hong Ha Shipyard, Vietnam’s key defence shipbuilding facility.

Other cooperation is extensive. India has extended three defence lines of credit worth about $100 million, $120 million and $180 million, financed 12 high-speed guard boats built by Larsen and Toubro (L&T) with five built in Chennai and seven in Hai Phong under Indian supervision, and gifted the missile corvette INS Kirpan to the Vietnam People’s Navy. India has trained more than 550 Vietnamese submariners at INS Satavahana for Kilo-class submarines and Vietnamese pilots for Sukhoi aircraft. In November 2025, the two sides held the 15th Defence Policy Dialogue in Hanoi and launched VINBAX 2025, the Vietnam-India Bilateral Army Exercise. VINBAX, first held in 2018 in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, is now in its sixth edition and is the only annual field-based UN peacekeeping exercise Vietnam conducts with another country, involving nearly 300 personnel over 18 days. Two new documents signed alongside it, a Memorandum of Agreement on Submarine Search and Rescue Support and a Letter of Intent on Defence Industry Collaboration, deepen maritime interoperability.

India and Vietnam have also agreed to establish a Strategic Diplomacy-Defence Dialogue (2+2) bringing together foreign and defence ministers, a format India currently has with only a few partners such as the United States, Japan, Australia and Russia. They will co-chair the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM-Plus) Experts’ Working Group on Cyber Security for 2027 to 2030 and coordinate on maritime security, hydrography, information sharing and search and rescue. A Vietnamese liaison officer is posted at India’s Information Fusion Centre-Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) in Gurugram. For India, Vietnam is the primary strategic anchor of the Act East Policy within ASEAN and the wider Indo-Pacific, with shared positions on freedom of navigation, overflight and unimpeded commerce under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), 1982 and a rules-based order in the South China Sea.

Is Vietnam Visa Free for Indian Citizens?

No, Vietnam is not visa free for Indian passport holders. Indian citizens must obtain a visa before travel, most commonly the Vietnam e-Visa applied online at the official portal evisa.gov.vn for $25 for single entry and $50 for multiple entry, valid for up to 90 days with processing in three to five working days.

The JCM’s emphasis on people-to-people ties links directly to travel facilitation. The e-Visa is accepted at all approved airports, land borders and seaports, and requires a passport valid for at least six months with two blank pages. The only visa free exception is Phu Quoc Island, where Indians can stay up to 30 days without a visa if they fly directly to Phu Quoc International Airport and remain on the island. Travel to mainland destinations such as Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City requires a full e-Visa, and since 2026 Vietnam also requires a separate free Digital Arrival Card at major airports. The JCM welcomed an agreement to address labour mobility through a new Consular Dialogue and noted the signing of an MoU on Tourism Cooperation to grow two-way tourism, including cultural, heritage, medical and wellness segments.

How to Go to Vietnam from India and How Far Is It?

The fastest way to travel from India to Vietnam is by air. Direct flights operated by VietJet Air, Vietnam Airlines, IndiGo and Air India connect New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata to Hanoi (Noi Bai International Airport, HAN) and Ho Chi Minh City (Tan Son Nhat International Airport, SGN). The straight line distance is about 3,194 kilometres, giving a direct flight time of about four to six hours depending on the city pair.

If direct flights do not suit, connecting options via Bangkok, Singapore or Kuala Lumpur take eight to 12 hours in total. One way direct fares typically start from about ₹11,000 to ₹20,000 when booked in advance, with round trips around ₹17,000 to ₹42,000 on trunk routes. At the JCM, both sides agreed to encourage their civil aviation authorities to enhance air connectivity, and they also discussed stronger port and financial connectivity. During the May 2026 summit, the two sides discussed linking India’s UPI with Vietnam’s retail payment network, which would lower payment costs for travellers and business visitors.

What Is the Time Difference Between India and Vietnam?

Vietnam is 1 hour and 30 minutes ahead of India. Indian Standard Time (IST) is UTC plus 5 hours 30 minutes, while Vietnam Time is UTC plus 7 hours. When it is 12 noon in New Delhi, it is 1:30 pm in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The narrow gap means little jet lag for Indian visitors.

Currency and embassy details help complete the practical picture. Vietnam uses the Vietnamese Dong (VND), with ₹1 equal to about 275 to 300 VND in 2026, compared with about 285 VND per rupee on average in recent months. United States dollars are accepted in some large hotels but the Dong is used for most transactions, and UPI does not work in Vietnam as there is no cross-border arrangement yet. The Embassy of Vietnam in New Delhi at Chanakyapuri and its Consulate General in Mumbai handle visas and consular services for India, while the Embassy of India in Hanoi and the Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City serve Indians in Vietnam, working alongside the Swami Vivekananda Cultural Centre (SVCC) in Hanoi established in September 2016.

Wider Pillars: Culture, Technology and Regional Cooperation

Culture and development form a strong strand of the partnership. The Joint Statement of May 2026 recorded that India sent the Holy Relics of Lord Buddha for exposition in Vietnam in May to June 2025, an event that drew a large public response and underlined deep civilisational and Buddhist links. India has committed to the conservation of the My Son UNESCO World Heritage Site in central Vietnam, where the Archaeological Survey of India has completed restoration of temple blocks A, H and K and is working on blocks E and F and the Nhan Tower in Dak Lak province. Vietnam appreciates the annual organisation of the International Day of Yoga on 21 June across many provinces, and the two sides agreed to set up ICCR Chairs of Indian Studies at Da Nang University and the University of Social Sciences and Humanities and to implement the Cultural Exchange Programme for 2026 to 2030. Tourism, education and youth exchanges are expected to be central to the 2027 Friendship Year.

Technology and sectoral cooperation have expanded quickly. An MoU on information technology from 2016 has led to three Joint Working Groups, and the first Cyber Policy Dialogue was held in Hanoi in January 2026. An Agreement on Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy signed in December 2016 guides nuclear cooperation, and Vietnam has invited India to participate in its nuclear power sector and thanked India for the supply of Cobalt-60 for medical and industrial use. The two sides are advancing an ASEAN-India tracking, data reception and data processing facility in Vietnam and signed an MoU on rare earths that brings together IREL (India) Limited and VINATOM. Space, sustainable water management and air pollution control are also on the agenda.

Development partnership reaches the grassroots. Under the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation framework, India has supported 66 Quick Impact Projects (QIPs) across 32 of Vietnam’s 34 provinces, focused on local infrastructure, health and education. The Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme remains a key tool for training Vietnamese officials, and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) offers scholarships for Vietnamese students. Vietnam joined the International Solar Alliance (ISA) and the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) during Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s visit in July to August 2024, and the Army Software Park at Telecommunications University, Nha Trang, built with a $5 million Indian grant, was virtually inaugurated. Under Operation Sadbhav in September 2024, India delivered 35 tonnes of emergency relief after Typhoon Yagi.

Regionally, Vietnam is central to India’s Act East Policy (launched in 2014 as the upgrade of the Look East Policy of 1991), its Vision MAHASAGAR (Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions) and its Indo-Pacific Vision. Both countries support ASEAN Unity and Centrality and the ASEAN-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, and they coordinate on UN reforms, with Vietnam supporting India’s bid for permanent membership in a reformed UN Security Council. Vietnam welcomed India’s 2026 BRICS Chairmanship while India supports Vietnam’s role as a BRICS Partner Country. Both sides reaffirmed the importance of peace, stability and freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea under UNCLOS, and called for full implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) and early conclusion of a substantive Code of Conduct (COC).

The Way Forward

The 19th JCM was framed as a review point to translate high-level political momentum into tangible results before the Friendship Year. For the $25 billion trade target, the near-term test is execution of the May 2026 MoUs on pharmaceuticals and agricultural market access, faster customs facilitation, and joint work on critical minerals and supply chains. Growth of about 28 percent in early 2026 suggests the trajectory is positive, but sustaining it will require steady removal of non-tariff barriers and stronger business-to-business links through the Vietnam-India Joint Business Council and the bilateral Business Forum.

Defence implementation is equally central. Delivery timelines for the BrahMos coastal systems, follow-on orders, and progress on co-production and technology sharing will show whether the partnership moves from buyer-seller ties to joint industrial work. Hosting the next Defence Policy Dialogue alongside Aero India 2027 and establishing the 2+2 Dialogue will add political direction. Maritime and cyber cooperation under ADMM-Plus, the Consular Dialogue on mobility, and expanded direct flights and payment linkages will widen people-level contact.

The Year of India-Vietnam Friendship in 2027 gives both governments a calendar to sequence these steps through festivals, trade fairs, academic seminars and youth exchanges. If aligned with the Plan of Action 2024 to 2028 and the ECSP Joint Statement, the anniversary year can serve as more than symbolism, helping to close infrastructure gaps, deepen supply chain integration and anchor a stable, rules-based order in Southeast Asia.

Key Takeaways

• The 19th India-Vietnam Joint Commission Meeting was held in New Delhi on 14 September 2026 and co-chaired by S. Jaishankar and Le Hoai Trung, where 2027 was declared the Year of India-Vietnam Friendship.
• The Friendship Year marks the 55th anniversary of full diplomatic relations established on 7 January 1972.
• Both sides reaffirmed the target to raise bilateral trade to $25 billion by 2030, up from about $16.46 billion in 2025 and $16 billion in FY 2025 to 2026, with $8.37 billion recorded in January to May 2026.
• Ties were elevated to an Enhanced Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in May 2026 during the state visit of Vietnamese leader To Lam, building on the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership of 2016 and the Strategic Partnership of 2007.
• Defence cooperation includes the $629 million BrahMos coastal defence contract, the VINBAX annual field-based UN peacekeeping exercise since 2018, and the Joint Vision Statement towards 2030 plus the Mutual Logistics Support MoU.
• Vietnam is not visa free for Indians; Indian citizens need a Vietnam e-Visa ($25 single entry, $50 multiple entry, up to 90 days, 3 to 5 working days at evisa.gov.vn), with a 30-day visa free exception only for direct stay on Phu Quoc Island.