New Delhi, Sep 12 (IANS): President Pranab Mukherjee is paying a state visit to Vietnam Sep 14-17 during which a slew of agreements, including on direct air services between the two countries, and for India to scout for oil and gas in the South China Sea, are expected to be inked, officials said here Friday.
President Mukherjee will carry a sapling of the holy Bodhi tree from Bodh Gaya in Bihar as a gift.
Besides the air services agreement between Jet Airways and Air Vietnam, the visit would also see OVL, the overseas arm of oil major ONGC, and Petro Vietnam ink an agreement for two additional blocks off Vietnam.
The president will be accompanied by Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and six MPs, including Supriya Sule of the Nationalist Congress Party and Pervesh Verma, the Bharatiya Janata Party MP from West Delhi.
The sapling of the Bodhi tree will be planted by President Mukherjee and his Vietnamese counterpart Truong Tan Sang in the presidential palace. Vietnam has said it is "looking forward to the gift" of the sacred Bodhi sapling, said Secretary (East) Anil Wadhwa at a briefing on the visit.
OVL and Petro Vietnam are to ink a Letter of Intent on hydrocarbon cooperation. OVL has been offered two additional blocks off Vietnam coast and the Indian company is to study the feasibility of the two blocks, said Wadhwa.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, during her visit to Vietnam last month to lay the groundwork for President Mukherjee's visit, had stated that India considers Vietnam one of the key pillars in its Look East policy and wants to strengthen all-round cooperation with the southeast Asian nation.
During the visit to India last year by Vietnamese Communist Party's general secretar, Nguyen Phu Trong, Hanoi had invited India to hunt for oil and gas in the disputed South China Sea. India had also made Hanoi the offer of $100 million line of credit for the purchase of four Offshore Patrol Vessels.
The official declined to say if the two oil blocks lie in the area in the South China Sea that is claimed by China.
To a question on the timing of President Mukherjee's visit as it runs close to that of Chinese President Xi Jinping, the official said there was "no particular reason" for the dates being scheduled thus. President Xi is visiting India from Sep 17-19.
"Each relation stands on its own.. There is no particular reason" for the dates to be scheduled one after the other, said Wadhwa. He said President Mukherjee's visit was scheduled much earlier than that of the Chinese president's visit.
President Mukherjee's visit ia also likely to see some agreements between the two nations, which became strategic partners in 2007, in the field of defence.
Vietnam is reported to be looking at buying BrahMos cruise missiles from India. The missiles are jointly manufactured by Russia and India.
The southeast Asian nation is also said to have requested India for submarine training and for training for its pilots to fly Sukhoi-30 fighter jets.