India and Vietnam Push Ahead with Strategic Security Cooperation

The Diplomat

Discussion of India-Vietnam Security Relations @
http://thediplomat.com/2015/07/surveying-indias-evolving-approach-to-maritime-security/

India and Vietnam Push Ahead with Strategic Security Cooperation

Vietnam’s defense minister is in India, with a maritime security-focused agenda.

By Ankit Panda

May 26, 2015

Vietnamese Defense Minister Phùng Quang Thanh is in India for a three-day visit this week.On Monday, Thanh met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar. Thanh’s visit to India is intended tobolster strategic ties between India and Vietnamand comes at a time of rising tensions in the South China Sea–where Vietnam disputes the sovereignty of various islands and reefs with China. Additionally, the Indian government has framed its approach toward Vietnam in terms of its proactive “Act East” policy. Parallel to Thanh’s visit to New Delhi, Indian and Vietnamese senior diplomats held their seventh deputy ministerial-level political consultation in Hanoi.

According toa statement posted on the Indian Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) website, “Gen. Thanh briefed Prime Minister Modi about defence and security related developments in the India-Vietnam bilateral relationship. Prime Minister Modi expressed satisfaction at the progress made in bilateral defence and security cooperation since the visit of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.”Thanh’s visit carries forward the bilateral India-Vietnam agenda that was established during Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s October 2014 visit to India. Thanh “thanked Prime Minister Modi for India’s strong and growing defence and security relationship with Vietnam, and for India’s support and assistance in this regard,” and Modi, for his part, assured Thanh of “India’s full commitment to the strategic partnership between the two countries.”

Thanh’s visit resulted in a Joint Vision Statement, outlining the trajectory of bilateral defense cooperation between the two countries through 2020.Thanh and his Indian counterpartsigned a memorandum of understanding on defense cooperationand oversaw the signing ofa memorandum on coast guard cooperationin New Delhi.

India’s relationship with Vietnam has been growing deeper on the security front. During Dung’s visit last fall, New Delhi agreed to supply four patrol vessels to Vietnam to improve its maritime security capabilities. Incidentally, Thanh’s trip to India comesjust over a year after Vietnam and China faced a major crisisafter China moved an oil rig, flanked by People’s Liberation Army-Navy (PLAN) and coast guard ships, into Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone. (See “1 Year Later: Reflections on China’s Oil Rig ‘Sovereignty-Making’ in the South China Sea“.) Beyond India, Vietnam has been pursuing closer defense ties with other partners. For example, shortly after Dung’s visit to India, the United Statesagreed to partially lift its years-old arms embargoagainst Vietnam, specifically permitting the sale of U.S. defense equipment that would help Hanoi improve its maritime capabilities.

The South China Sea has, meanwhile, started to feature more prominently on the diplomatic agenda between India and Vietnam. Starting last year, New Delhi began featuring language on the South China Sea in joint statements with Vietnam. In September 2014, for example, ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to India,Indian President Pranab Mukherjee visited Vietnamand, with his counterpart, issued a statement emphasizing freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, and adherence to international law, specifically the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. In the months since, Indiahas emphasized the role of international lawand arbitration in limiting crises in the South China Sea. In the wake of last summer’s oil rig crisis,Vietnam lodged a legal complaint against Chinaas well, demonstrating further convergence between Hanoi and New Delhi’s preferred modes of dealing with the sovereignty disputes in the South China Sea.

India’s growing relationship with Vietnam is part of a broader strategic eastward push into Southeast Asia. As Thanh met with Indian officials on Monday, four Indian warshipsset off for a deploymentto the South China Sea. The Indian Navy’s Eastern Fleet deployed the INSRanvirdestroyer, the INSShaktifleet tanker,INSSatpura stealth frigate, and INSKamortaanti-submarine warfare corvette to the region to participate in a four-day maritime exercise with Singapore’s Navy.

The four Indian warships will also be making portcalls in Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Cambodia. In its report on the Indian navy’s deployment to the South China Sea, theTimes of Indianoted that the initiative was a product of New Delhi’s “Act East” policy. According to one senior naval officer, the deployment will also “[show]the Indian flag in this region of strategic importance,” and improve “interoperability between navies.”

Vietnam and India-US Cooperation

Stronger U.S. ties with Vietnam nicely complement India’s Act East policy and its own strategic outreach to Vietnam.

By Sylvia Mishra and Pushan Das

June 10, 2015

This year is the 20th anniversary of the restoration of U.S.-Vietnam diplomatic relations. Over the years, the two countries have enjoyed a gradual normalization of ties, with a major fillip given recently by the visit of U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter. Washington’s engagement with Vietnam is an important indicator of America’s political commitment in the region. Carter’s visit to Vietnam was also closely followed by policymakers in India – as Carter said at the recent Shangri-La Dialogue, the U.S. is looking for ways to complement India’s Act East policy. U.S.-Vietnam engagement could well act as a catalyst for India’s own growing ties with Vietnam. Over the last few years, Hanoi’s importance has been rising in New Delhi, owing in part to the latter’s Act East policy, and in part to energy security concerns and Vietnam’s geostrategic importance in maintaining regional balance.

Starting in the early 1960s, India has steadily built political ties with Vietnam, regarding the country as India’s “most trusted friend and ally.” Notwithstanding the close engagement, though, the partnership remained largely at the political and diplomatic level, with little progress on the economic and security front. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi injecting new vigor into India’s Act East policy, Vietnam has became central to India’s strategic calculus as one of the anchor countries of India’s policy in the region.

For India, the foundations for more robust strategic and security ties were laid during former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Vietnam in 2010. Further progress was made in September 2014, with the visit by President Pranab Mukherjee. Broadening the scope of the India-Vietnam partnership, during October 2014, Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung paid a state visit to India and signed a joint statement affirming Vietnam as an important pillar of India’s foreign policy, while also concluding multiple memorandums. This evolving relationship is receiving a further boost from American policies towards Vietnam.

Laying the Groundwork

At a joint news conference, Carter and his Vietnamese counterpart General Phung Quang Thanh affirmed that both the countries are committed to deepening the defense relationship and laying the groundwork for the next 20 years of partnership. Both countries signed a Joint Vision Statement in which the United States pledged its support for Vietnamese peacekeeping training and operations as well as cooperation in search-and-rescue and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. The breakthrough opens the door to greater cooperation in the future.

The Joint Vision Statement follows Washington’s announcement last year that it would lift its ban on sales of weaponry to Vietnam. While the announcement did limit arms sales to equipment that will help Vietnam improve its maritime security, the move highlights America’s realist policies of bolstering the capabilities of countries in the region. Amid heightened tensions over China’s expanding land reclamation and militarization, senior Republican Senator John McCain has argued that America needs to provide Vietnam with more defensive weapons. These statements and overtures reflect a marked change from America’s traditional policies toward Vietnam, thereby underlining the geopolitical shifts of the 21st century.

These shifts in America’s East Asia policy serve India’s Act East policy well. Revamped U.S. ties with Vietnam provide impetus to India’s own strategic partnership with Vietnam. On the other hand, Indo-U.S. cooperation in East Asia lends stimulus to the concept of the Indo-Pacific as a seamless strategic construct. Vietnam could possibly become the focal country in Indo-U.S. cooperation, as both New Delhi and Washington can benefit strategically. Meanwhile, the India-U.S. Defense Framework agreement should serve as a bedrock that coalesces India’s future engagements in the region.

Quadrilateral Challenges

In contrast to the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue – which saw only a very modest commitment from Australia and Japan – Indo-U.S. co-operation in the region is a realistic proposition with a clear alignment of foreign and defense policies. The U.S. is strategically and commercially invested in the modernization of India’s defense industry, bolstering India’s preparedness. On the other hand, even though India’s trade relationship with Japan is strong, and ties with Australia are growing, little headway has been made in the area of defense co-operation with either country. Instead, New Delhi’s relations with these two important Asia-Pacific countries has remained mostly political and diplomatic.

Japan’s offer to sell the amphibious sea planes in the form of the ShinMaywa US-2 reflects its reluctance to share critical technologies. India’s interest in the Japanese built Soryu-class submarines has been one-sided and has received little reciprocation so far. For defense co-operation to progress on the envisaged lines of militarily balancing China, this co-operation will need to progress beyond sporadic bilateral military exercises to the point where Japan is ready to share defense technology with its allies. Military and political posturing without deeper cooperation in the field of defense is of little benefit to India. Australia, on the other hand, has little to offer materially and is also constrained by the limited size of its military. However, Australia’s experience in operating with other militaries in the region is something India can benefit from. Given that bilateral defense cooperation in the region has yet to gain momentum, Indo-U.S. defense co-operation will be important in creating extended links to balance China’s growing military might.

Synchronizing Cooperation

India needs to extend more credit to Vietnam: $100 million is modest given the role it expects Vietnam to play within the Asia-Pacific context. Although it is encouraging that India is proactively reaching out to build ties with Vietnam, the scale and speed of engagement is disappointing. The supply of four off-shore patrol vessels is the highlight of the defense co-operation kick initiated last year. Yet Vietnam’s acquisition of Russian Kilo-class submarines and Sukhoi aircraft presents opportunities for India to provide training on platforms it has been using for years. The sale of the Indo-Russian supersonic Brahmos missile is another avenue that can be explored to bolster Vietnamese defense capabilities in the South China Sea.

It is also important for the United States to strengthen existing bilateral security frameworks to bolster the capabilities of regional powers. American endorsement of security cooperation between Japan and the Philippines in conjunction with a defense framework agreement and efforts to bolster Vietnam’s maritime capabilities are steps that will help institutionalize an architecture that can maintain balance in disputed areas. The India-U.S. Joint Vision and the mention of the South China Sea is India’s strategic response to the growing Chinese naval profile in the Indian Ocean Region. In this context, America’s outreach to Vietnam and India’s Act East policy are symbolic of India-U.S. cooperation in the Indo-Pacific.

Sylvia Mishra and Pushan Das are researchers at the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi.

India and Vietnam Advance Their Strategic Partnership

India and Vietnam are expanding their strategic partnership from energy and trade to defense and space — and beyond.

By Carl Thayer

December 11, 2014

In 2015 Vietnam will become the country coordinator for relations between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and India for a three-year term ending in 2018. This will be an important partnership because the strategic interests of both countries markedly converged in 2014 and are likely to continue on this trajectory.

The new government in India led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi views Vietnam as an essential partner for its Act East Policy. Modi has injected new momentum in the 2007 India-Vietnam strategic partnership. For example, President Pranab Mukherjee visited Hanoi from September 14-17 and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung made an official visit to Delhi from October 27-28.

At the conclusion of President Mukherjee’s state visit he issued a joint statement with his counterpart, President Truong Tan Sang. This statement declared “that cooperation in national defense was an important pillar in their strategic partnership.”

To underscore this point President Mukherjee announced that the Export-Import Bank of India had signed a $100 million line of credit agreement with Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance, with an annual interest rate of two percent, to facilitate defense procurement over the next decade and a half. In the past Vietnam lacked funds and used barter and/or partial payment to procure military equipment. Mukherjee also agreed to expand military training and assist Vietnam Navy’s strike capabilities.

In addition to defense and security, the joint statement enumerated five additional areas of cooperation: political, economic, science and technology, culture and people-to-people links, technical, and regional and multilateral diplomacy. Seven agreements across a number of areas were signed during Mukherjee’s visit indicating the growing breadth of bilateral relations.

When Prime Minister Dung arrived in India the following month, he was welcomed by Prime Minister Modi. Modi noted that his government had intensified engagement with the Asia-Pacific region because it was critical to India’s future. “And it is no surprise,” Modi declared, “that Vietnam has been at the forefront or our efforts… We have a shared interest in maritime security, including freedom of navigation and commerce and peaceful settlement of disputes in accordance with international law.”

To underscore this point, Modi went on to observe,

Our defense cooperation with Vietnam is among our most important ones. India remains committed to the modernization of Vietnam’s defense and security forces. This will include expansion of our training program, which is already very substantial, joint exercises and cooperation in defense equipment. We will quickly operationalize the 100 million dollars Line of Credit that will enable Vietnam to acquire new naval vessels from India. We have also agreed to enhance our security cooperation, including counter-terrorism.