Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh

(VOV) - A Vietnamese delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan left Hanoi on Sunday, beginning a week-long official visit to India. This is the first India visit by a Vietnamese leader in the Vietnam-India Friendship Year 2012. The visit aims to concretise high-level agreements reached during the India visits by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in July 2007, and State President Truong Tan Sang in October 2011. It is expected to increase bilateral cooperation in the areas of politics, security, national defence, culture, science-technology, and education-training, so as to lift the Vietnam-India strategic partnership to a new level. Vietnam and India will celebrate the 40^th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties and the 5^th anniversary of the strategic partnership.