PM Narendra Modi to leave for Vietnam, China, today

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to embark on a two-nation bilateral visit to Vietnam and attend the annual summit of powerful G-20 grouping in China's Hangzhou where India is likely to seek concrete measures to check terror financing and crackdown on tax evasion.

In his first leg of the visit, PM Modi will reach Vietnam from where he will leave for Hangzhou on 3 September to attend the G-20 summit on 4 and 5 September. He is scheduled to return to India on 5 September after which the PM will again leave for Laos on a two-day visit to attend the annual India-ASEAN and East Asia Summits.

In Vietnam, PM Modi will hold wide-ranging talks with top leadership of the resource-rich country to deepen ties in key areas of defence, security and trade, and ramping up India's engagement in oil exploration.

India's ONGC Videsh Limited is engaged in oil exploration projects in Vietnam for over three decades and there may be announcements about new projects in the sector during the bilateral visit, which is taking place after a gap of 15 years.

At the G-20 Summit, India is likely to raise a host of issues ranging from choking terror funding and checking tax evasion to cutting cost of remittances and market access for key drugs.

On the sidelines of the Summit, PM Modi will have a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and attend a BRICS leaders' meet. A number of other bilaterals are being finalised, Secretary (West) in the Ministry of External Affairs Sujatha Mehta told reporters.

She said issues like global tax reform, climate friendly financing and market access for antibiotics are some of the issues likely to be discussed at the meetings. Niti Ayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya is India's sherpa for the G-20 and some of the issues were already discussed in the run up to the summit.

-With PTI inputs