By Carl Thayer
Vietnam’s defense relations with India lessen its near total defense dependency on Russia.
Last month, after Russia’s President Vladimir Putin made a high-profile visit to Hanoi that resulted in a marked step up in defense cooperation, the Secretary General of the Vietnam Communist Party Nguyen Phu Trong traveled to India with the same objective. Trong’s visit signaled that Vietnam seeks to leverage India’s expertise and experience with Soviet/Russian military technology to its advantage and mitigate the risk of dependency on a sole supplier.
Secretary General Trong successfully sought India’s assistance to modernize its armed forces. In response to earlier Vietnamese lobbying to purchase naval warships, India made the unprecedented offer of a US$100 million line of credit for the purchase of four Offshore Patrol Vessels. This was India’s first offer of credit for the purchase of military equipment to a country outside of South Asia. Another agreement related to the protection of defense-related information.
India and Vietnam are reportedly negotiating the sale of the BrahMos cruise missile to Vietnam as well as cooperation in defense co-production.
Shortly after Trong returned to Vietnam, it was announced that India would train up to 500 Vietnamese sailors in “comprehensive underwater combat operations” at its modern submarine training center INS Satavahana.
Read the full story at The Diplomat