External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar inaugurated a bust of Nobel Laureate writer-poet Rabindranath Tagore in Bac Ninh city, Vietnam on October 15, 2023.
- He said that India and Vietnam share profound historical connections dating back almost 2,000 years which are rooted in Buddhism.
- Historical records indicate that Tagore paid a three-day visit to Ho Chi Minh City in 1929, leaving a lasting intellectual and socio-cultural impact on Vietnam.
- Tagore’s Gitanjali was translated into Vietnamese and published in 2001. Gitanjali, a collection of poetry, is Tagore’s most famous work and was published in India in 1910.
- Tagore won the Nobel Prize for Literature for its English translation, Song Offerings, making him the first non-European to receive this honour in 1913.
- Jaishankar said he was pleased to know that Vietnam issued a commemorative postage stamp in honour of Tagore in 1982.
