On Monday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh met with his Vietnamese counterpart, General Phan Van Giang, who is visiting India for two days. The meeting was also attended by Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan and other key officials from the Ministry of Defence. The two sides have been concentrating on strengthening bilateral defence ties and evaluating the situation in the South China Sea, an area marked by increased Chinese aggression. Both parties also discussed regional and global issues of mutual importance.
During the visit of Vietnam’s then-Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to India in July 2007, relations between the two nations were upgraded to the status of “strategic partnership.” Bilateral relations were elevated to a “comprehensive strategic partnership” during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Vietnam in 2016.
With India emphasising its Act East policy, Vietnam has emerged as a significant partner, and defence engagements between the two countries include broad interactions between services, military-to-military exchanges, capacity building, and training courses. During Rajnath Singh’s June 2022 visit to Vietnam, a joint vision statement for India-Vietnam defence cooperation and a Memorandum of Understanding on mutual logistics support were signed.
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