India-Vietnam

deciding to step up ties in oil and gas exploration.

“We will jointly work for an open, independent and prosperous Indo-Pacific region where sovereignty and international laws are respected and where differences are resolved through talks,” Modi said in a statement after the talks.

Vietnam is among other ASEAN countries wary of growing Chinese naval footprint in the region. Several of these countries also have disputes with Beijing over the resource-rich South China Sea.

In an apparent reference to the South China Sea dispute, the Vietnamese President said it supports India’s multi-faceted “connectivity” with ASEAN and asserted that there must be freedom of navigation and over flight in the region. He said that disputes must be resolved through peaceful means.

While India, the US and several other world powers have been pressing for resolution of the dispute on the basis of international law, China has been favouring a bilateral framework with respective countries.

“We reaffirm our close collaboration to support India…with ASEAN attaching high importance to the maintenance of security, maritime safety and freedom of navigation and over flight, set- tlement of disputes by peaceful means on the basis of international law including ULCLOS (UN Convention on the Law of the Sea),” Quang said.

He said both sides also agreed to work closely to address regional security challenges including in the domain of maritime and cyber security.

Modi said both sides decided to cooperate in defence production and explore opportunities in transfer of technology and added that the two countries will also look for trilateral partnership in oil and gas sector.