Vietnam Minister of National Defence, General Phan Van Giang will arrive in India this week on a three-day official visit. During the visit, he will hold bilateral talks with defence minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi on June 19.
India and Vietnam had earlier signed a Joint Vision Statement on the India-Vietnam Defence Partnership towards 2030.
The defence partnership aims to significantly enhance the scope and scale of existing defence cooperation.
In 2022, the document was signed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and the Southeast nation’s Minister of National Defence General Phan Van Giang in Hanoi.
Building on the defence cooperation, India also agreed on the early finalisation of the $500 million Defence Line of Credit extended to Vietnam.
India and Vietnam also inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Mutual Logistics Support (MLS).
The MLS with India is all about increasing cooperative engagements between the defence forces of the two countries.
In fact, according to the MoD, this is a major step towards simplifying procedures for mutually beneficial logistic support and is the first such major agreement which Vietnam has signed with any country.
India looks at Vietnam as a strategic partner under its Act East Asia policy. Defence cooperation puts the relationship on a strategic level.
The two countries are also collaborating in the maritime domain.
Overall, the bilateral relations surged in 2016 and further elevated to a “comprehensive strategic partnership” during Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Vietnam.