India and Vietnam signed on Wednesday a Joint Vision Statement on India-Vietnam Defence Partnership towards 2030 and also inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Mutual Logistics Support to strengthen bilateral defence cooperation between the two countries.
While the Joint Vision Statement on India-Vietnam Defence Partnership towards 2030 is expected to significantly enhance the scope and scale of existing defence cooperation between the two countries, the logistics support agreement signed by Vietnam with any country is said to be a major step towards simplifying procedures for mutually beneficial logistic support.
Defence minister Rajnath Singh, who is on a three-day tour to Vietnam, met his Vietnamese counterpart General Phan Van Giang in Hanoi during which they agreed on the early finalisation of the $500 million Defence Line of Credit extended to Vietnam.
To this effect, the defence ministry said the implementation of the projects will add substantially to Vietnam’s Defence capabilities and further Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘Make in India, Make for the World’.
Aside from Philippines, Vietnam is among the countries, which have been looking at buying BrahMos supersonic missile, and Rajnath Singh’s visit may provide a fillip to Hanoi’s plans, defence sources told News18.
According to the defence ministry, both the leaders held wide-ranging discussions on effective and practical initiatives to further expand bilateral defence engagements and regional and global issues.
India and Vietnam share a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership since 2016, of which defence cooperation is a key pillar, the defence ministry said on Wednesday. The government further said Vietnam is an important partner in India’s Act East policy and the Indo-Pacific vision.
It said the two countries also share a rich history of civilisational and cultural linkages spanning over 2,000 years.
Why is This Meeting Important?
Defence officials told News18 that the defence minister’s tour to Vietnam and the signing of key defence agreements is a reflection of the growing defence cooperation between New Delhi and Hanoi.
“This is particularly true in the maritime domain, as China continues to flex its muscles in the South China Sea amid growing territorial disputes with Vietnam in the region,” an official said.
Defence sources told News18 that India may also gift a Khukri-class corvette — likely to be INS Kirpan– to Vietnam, which is currently in service with the Indian Navy, testifying the trust and bonhomie between the two countries.
On Thursday, India handed over 12 high-speed guard boats to Vietnam at a ceremony at the Hong Ha Shipyard.
On Wednesday, Singh also announced gifting two simulators and monetary grant towards setting up of Language and IT Lab at Air Force Officers Training School for capacity building of Vietnamese Armed Forces.
Government sources said Vietnam does not trust most other major powers easily and is skeptical of signing defence pacts with them, even though the sector has remained their focus in the last decade.
“But the vision statement signed between the two countries for a significantly long period of 10 years and the logistics pact being the first such major agreement that Vietnam chose to sign with India are reflection of the deepening cooperation between the two countries,” a defence official said.
In the past, India has signed multiple logistics agreements with countries like the United States and France, among others, which facilitate India’s access to certain military bases of other countries and vice versa for immediate logistical support.
“The agreement with Vietnam is the latest and is the most significant step in the backdrop of India’s growing focus towards maritime security,” the official quoted above said.
India-Vietnam Maritime Security
Rajiv Bhatia, a distinguished fellow at foreign policy think tank Gateway House, told News18 that the defence minister’s visit to Vietnam is of noteworthy significance. “While India and Vietnam cooperation has been on the economic and political aspects, a deeper defence cooperation has been the centre-stage in the last few years,” Bhatia said.
“There will be an across the board dialogue furthering India-Vietnam ties. In the backdrop of the US-China contest unfolding in the Indo-Pacific, Vietnam is of special significance to both India and the US,” he said. “It also indicates the shared desire to constrain China that it must follow the rules and regulations of international law.”
Baladas Ghoshal, a former Professor and Chair in Southeast Asian Studies, JNU, told News18 that Vietnam has been a close ally of India and thus the defence minister’s visit assumes significance since building cooperation is a continuous process.
“Among other historical factors, one of the reasons is also that Vietnam has traditionally resisted any kind of Chinese pressure on them,” Ghoshal, an expert on southeast Asia, said. “That has also brought the two countries closer and defence cooperation is an important element of it, particularly in the maritime sphere, which is the focus as per emerging threat perceptions,” he said.
According to the defence ministry, India and Vietnam continue to have the most trustworthy relations in contemporary times with broader convergence of interests and common concerns.
“Bilateral defence engagements have expanded over a period of time to include wide-ranging contacts between the two countries, including Defence Policy Dialogues, military to military exchanges, high-level visits, capacity building and training programmes, cooperation in UN Peace Keeping, ship visits and bilateral exercises,” it said.
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