Vietnam proposes 5 areas of cooperation with India at bilateral defence policy talk

NEW DELHI — The 14th India-Vietnam Defence Policy Dialogue took place in the national capital, in which Vietnam proposed five focus areas for cooperation.

The areas include delegation exchanges and dialogue, staff talks, service-to-service cooperation, education and training, and defence industry cooperation.

India’s Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane welcomed the five-point proposal and proposed cooperation in the emerging areas of concern for both countries, such as cybersecurity, information security, military medicine, and submarine search and rescue.

The Defence Policy Dialogue, which took place in the national capital on Thursday, was co-chaired by Giridhar Aramane and Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of National Defence, Lieutenant General Hoang Xuan Chien.

During the meeting, the two sides reviewed the range of bilateral defence cooperation issues and noted the transformative progress in the ties after the signing of the ‘Joint Vision Statement on India-Vietnam Defence Partnership Towards 2030’ in June 2022 during Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s visit to Vietnam.

Aramane highlighted the potential of the domestic defence industry to fulfil the capacity and capability enhancement of friendly foreign countries, and looked forward to a fruitful partnership with the Vietnam People’s Armed Forces.

After the meeting, the two sides signed a letter of intent to strengthen cooperation in the field of training, including the exchange of instructors and experts.

The Ministry of Defence said that defence cooperation is one of the strong pillars of the comprehensive strategic partnership between India and Vietnam, which is an important partner in India’s Act East Policy and the Indo-Pacific Region.