Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrives in Vietnam - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh arrived here on Thursday evening for the third and final leg of his three-nation Asia tour. Dr. Singh has arrived in Hanoi as part of India's Look East policy that aims at furthering and strengthening its interests in the entire East Asia and South East Asia Region. During his three-day stay in this Vietnamese capital, Dr. Singh's schedule will involve a number of Summits and meetings, including eighth India-ASEAN Summit and the fifth East Asia Summit. On Wednesday, India and Malaysia had signed an agreement to implement Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA), which will come into force from July next year. The agreement is expected to take their two-way trade to 15 billion dollar-mark by 2015. The two nations also signed Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) in the areas of information technology and services, traditional medicine, cultural exchanges and research and development. Earlier, in the first leg of Dr. Singh's three nation Asian tour, Dr. Singh visited Japan. India and Japan announced firming up of Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement, which will open trade between the two countries and slashing of taxes up to 94 percent over the next decade. The two nations also decided to establish a ministerial level 'Economic Dialogue' between India and Japan to give strategic and long-term policy orientation to their bilateral engagement. Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh returns home on October 30.