{"id":36697,"date":"2014-11-03T18:08:20","date_gmt":"2014-11-03T12:38:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/?p=36697"},"modified":"2015-08-04T18:16:44","modified_gmt":"2015-08-04T12:46:44","slug":"indias-strategic-ties-with-vietnam-on-the-rise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/india\/indias-strategic-ties-with-vietnam-on-the-rise","title":{"rendered":"India’s strategic ties with Vietnam on the rise"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Indias<\/a><\/p>\n

India<\/a> has made it clear that \u201cits relationship with Vietnam is not contingent on any country\u201d. This statement was made by Ministry of External Affairs\u2019 spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin more than 24 hours before China reacted against India-Vietnam agreement on exploration of two more oil blocks in the South China Sea during Nguyen Tan Dung, the\u00a0Vietnam PM’s, just concluded two-day visit.<\/p>\n

Through this a broad hint was given that New Delhi would not entertain any dictate from any country when it comes to purely serving its interests. India sounded unflatteringly that its intention to explore oil in Vietnam\u2019s backyard is purely commercial. But making a usual harangue, China\u2019s Foreign Affairs Ministry said, \u201cChina will firmly oppose any exploration activity in the South China Sea if it undermines China\u2019s sovereignty and interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, India under Narendra Modi\u2019s administration seems to have girded up its loin to make China realize that the latter too would have to be mindful about India\u2019s sensitivity. It handed over nuclear technology to Pakistan despite New Delhi\u2019s vehement protest; then, it is engaged in dams and other projects in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. India\u2019s sovereign claim over Arunachal Pradesh is being questioned and so is the country\u2019s road construction project along border areas in the Northeast and the Ladakh region that China protests time and again. Further to rile India, it has not stopped issuing stapled visa to Indian nationals living in Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir even as the issue crops up every time the two countries\u2019 leaders meet.<\/p>\n

Checkmating China’s strategy<\/strong><\/p>\n

To give China taste of bitter pills, India under its \u201cLook East\u201d policy, began its diplomatic exercise though slowly and smoothly across the region. Vietnam, the Southeast Asian country with which China doesn\u2019t share cosy relationship, has been marked as the main cog of New Delhi\u2019s road map to deepen penetration in the South China Sea and its surroundings. Moreover, since the BJP-led NDA government came into power in May it \u201cpromptly and purposefully\u201d intensified engagement with the countries of the Asia Pacific region. In August, it sent External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to Vietnam and then a few days before Chinese President Xi Jinping\u2019s three-day visit in September, President Pranab Mukherjee went to Hanoi.<\/p>\n

Added to all this, came a visit by the Vietnamese Premier and that too just five weeks after President Mukherjee\u2019s trip to the Southeast Asian country. Spectacle of heightened diplomatic overtures between the two nations was on the display.<\/p>\n

In the backdrop of Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s successive comments against China\u2019s aggressive positioning in the Asia Pacific region, during his visit to Japan, address to the United Nations General Assembly and while issuing a joint statement with President Barack Obama during his US visit, New Delhi\u2019s engagement with Hanoi seems to have become an issue of concern for Chinese authorities. And, it is quite apparent in Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei\u2019s statement. \u201cAny lawful and justifiable oil exploration activity is fine for us. But if such activity undermines sovereignty and interests of China, we are firmly opposed to this,\u201d Hong Lei said.<\/p>\n

Despite this, India seems to have no desire to keep in check its foray into the Southeast Asian region. It has agreed to supply military equipments to Vietnam under $100 million Line of Credit offered to Hanoi during President Mukherjee\u2019s last month visit. \u201cIndia remains committed to the modernisation of Vietnam\u2019s defence and security forces. This will include expansion of our training programme, which is already very substantial, joint-exercises and cooperation in defence equipment,\u201d Prime Minister Modi said during a joint press conference with his Vietnamese counterpart Dung.<\/p>\n

Extending cooperation with Vietnam<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Not only\u00a0did he say that,\u00a0the two countries also agreed to increase cooperation in space, space applications and launch of the Southeast Asian country\u2019s satellites besides the peaceful use of civil nuclear energy. This signified India\u2019s purposeful expansion of its strategic interests in the region, yet what came for a shove was the two countries\u2019 readiness to increase the volume of trade and commerce from currently $8 billion to $15 billion by 2015. Then investment by Indian companies in Vietnam has also registered an increase. Currently, total Indian companies\u2019 investment in Vietnam stands at $1 billion, and these include agro chemicals, oil and gas, mineral exploration, IT and agriculture.<\/p>\n

Tata Power is on way to set up a 660X2 thermal power plant in the country. This apart, India is also leading the chart of countries engaged in capacity development process of Vietnam. India has so far extended 18 Line of Credits to Vietnam covering about 90 plus projects. It is offering 150 scholarships under ITEC programme and 40 other scholarships every year to Vietnamese students. It has also set up a number of institutes for IT-related training, English language, vocational training and entrepreneurial development.<\/p>\n

Overtures with Vietnam assume significance<\/strong><\/p>\n

While all this shows deepening of mutual understanding between the two countries, manifestation of their strong bond was before the world when the countries signed as many as seven agreements during the Vietnamese Prime Minister\u2019s visit which was the third since 2007. Seen in the backdrop of India\u2019s readiness to change its strategic thinking vis-a-vis China, such overtures with Vietnam assume significance. It should be noted that during Modi\u2019s high-voltage visit to the US, for the first time, India agreed to support America\u2019s \u2018Asia Pivot\u2019 strategy, designed to checkmate China\u2019s assertiveness in the Pacific region.<\/p>\n

Then it has in principal agreed to a suggestion of increasing the level of India-Japan-America, trilateral dialogue from official to ministerial level. All this is aimed to achieve deterrence against China, the country of fire-spitting dragon whose economic growth has strengthened military prowess – seen by many countries including India with concern.<\/p>\n

Read More:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\nLand Acquisition Laws in India and the Duplicitous Deals<\/a>
\nHow Can India Benefit From Becoming a Member of SCO?<\/a>
\nIndia\u2019s strategic ties with Vietnam on the rise<\/a>
\nIndia\u2019s Foreign Policy Roadmap <\/a>
\nWhy Modi government is important for China, US<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

India has made it clear that \u201cits relationship with Vietnam is not contingent on any country\u201d. This statement was made by Ministry of External Affairs\u2019 spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin more than 24 hours before China reacted against India-Vietnam agreement on exploration of two more oil blocks in the South China Sea during Nguyen Tan Dung, the\u00a0Vietnam […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1801,"featured_media":37015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11315],"tags":[6407],"class_list":{"0":"post-36697","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-india","8":"tag-indi"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1801"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36697"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48082,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36697\/revisions\/48082"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}