Vietnam pushes for India visit by its PM
NEW DELHI : Vietnam is pushing for a visit to India by its Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, according to persons aware of the matter. India and Vietnam have forged a close strategic partnership in recent years.
In 2016, bilateral ties were raised to the level of a ‘comprehensive strategic partnership’ during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Vietnam. The proposed visit will be part of a trend of deeper political engagement between the two countries.
Besides Modi, former President Ramnath Kovind, external affairs minister S Jaishankar and defence minister Rajnath Singh have visited Vietnam. India provided Vietnam a $100 million line of credit for military purchases, under which it bought high-speed patrol boats from India.
Should the visit materialise, the finalisation of a $500 million credit line for more defence purchases, discussed during Singh’s visit, may be on the agenda. “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 programs, cooperation in UN Peace keeping, ship visits and bilateral exercises," reads a joint vision statement on defence released after Singh’s visit to Vietnam in June 2022. “These ties assume additional significance in the backdrop of India’s two-year-long Ladakh border stand-off with China, and Beijing’s aggressive moves in the South China Sea that directly impact Vietnamese security," writes Sameer Patil for the Observer Research Foundation, a
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