Narendra Modi to visit Philippines for Asean

New Delhi: With Prime Minister Narendra Modi all set to visit the Philippines soon to deepen India’s engagement with Asean (Association of South-east Asian nations) as well as to attend the East Asia Summit, Vietnamese ambassador to India Ton Sinh Thanh on Tuesday evening pitched for more Indo-Asean engagement, hailing India as Vietnam’s “brother”. Speaking at special meeting here, the envoy also confirmed that the Vietnamese Prime Minister will represent his country at the “Special Asean-India Summit” and Republic Day celebrations in January at which India is expected to host leaders from all 10 Asean nations in honour of the completion of 25 years of Indo-Asean engagement and partnership. 

Vietnam, like India, has fought a border war with China earlier and remains wary of the Chinese dragon’s moves in the South China Sea since it has a maritime territorial dispute with China in the region. Vietnam is also an important member of ASEAN and is gearing up to receive US President Donald Trump in Hanoi.