Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s best wishes to Vietnam on Tet (Lunar New Year) were posted on social media on February 8, the first day of Tet, the Consulate General of India in Ho Chi Minh City said in a press release on Tuesday.

On Facebook, the page “India in Vietnam (Consulate General of India, Ho Chi Minh City)” has showed a status line, which begins with the two sentences: “Prime Minister of India's warm greetings to Vietnam on the occasion of Tet! Lời chúc mừng của Thủ tướng Ấn Độ gửi đến Việt Nam nhân dịp Tết!” [the second sentence is the Vietnamese version of the first]. The status line ends with “Tết greetings to the people of Vietnam. May this year be full of joy & prosperity” (Lời chúc Tết tới nhân dân Việt Nam. Chúc nhân dân Việt Nam năm mới tràn đầy niềm vui và thịnh vượng). The same wishes were also posted on Twitter on the same day.

It has received a big attention from Indian Twitter users with over 1000 likes and 400 retweets. PM Modi, who has an active social media presence across platforms, is currently the second most followed politician in the world after US President Barack Obama. In the last 20 months in power, PM Modi has used Twitter in his diplomatic efforts to reach out to leaders and people of the world. Vietnam and India established diplomatic relations on January 7, 1972, and since then the bilateral ties between the countries have constantly developed in all aspects.