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He underlined the importance of India, along with Vietnam and other South East Asian countries as well as Australia and New Zealand as part of the US strategy for supporting peaceful environment in Asia Pacific. Panetta visits India from June 5.
Panetta said would be visiting Vietnam after attending the Shangri-La Dialogue which opened on Friday with a keynote address by the Indonesian President H Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Panetta said he would advance bilateral defence cooperation building off the comprehensive memorandum of understanding that was signed last year by the United States with Vietnam.