The Act East policy has outlined India as a responsible stakeholder in the region, and Vietnam is our most important anchor, elucidates Prof Rajaram Panda
India and Vietnam share a significant bilateral relationship — one that has assumed robustness over the years, particularly since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries on January 7, 1972. Their ties range from politics to strategic, defence to economic, culture, education, training, and entrepreneurship development.
There has been exchange of visits of top leaders between the two countries on regular basis, further cementing the ties and seeking means to explore new vistas so that both can maximise mutual gains. It would not be wrong to say that no other country within the ASEAN grouping has received the kind of importance and attention by India than Vietnam. And that makes India-Vietnam relations special.
The coming year shall mark the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations, and 10 years of Strategic Partnership, which was elevated to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Vietnam in September 2016. These two are significant milestones. Since the days of first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and President Rajendra Prasad, almost all top political leaders of India — President, Vice-President, Speaker, many senior ministers, etc — have paid visits to Vietnam over the years, underlining the importance India attaches to the country.
These visits have been happily reciprocated by Vietnam as well. The founder of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh, is held in high reverence by the people of India. In continuation to these ongoing dialogues, the first week of December saw two important visits by high-level delegations from Vietnam to India in view of the 45th anniversary. Vietnam’s Defence Minister, Ngo Xuan lich, visited from December 3 to 5 and held talks with his counterpart Manohar Parrikar, besides having met Prime Minister Modi and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. The possible sale of BrahMos missiles by India to Vietnam, which has been on the table for quite some time, again came up for discussion.
Vietnam is involved in a territorial dispute with China over the South China Sea (SCS). India, too, is engaged in oil exploration activities in the areas of the sea that Vietnam claims and, therefore, has stake to defend its economic interests if those come under threat from an outside power. In principle, India has agreed to sell the missiles to Vietnam over which negotiations are still on. Vietnam is keen to possess these supersonic missiles that can be fired from land, water, and under water. India produces this weapon system in partnership with Russia, which shall have no objection if India enters into a commercial deal with Vietnam on this. Other issues that came up for discussion and agreement reached included the much delayed project to train Vietnamese pilots on the Su 30.
The other important visit from Vietnam was by the Chairwoman of the National Assembly, Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, from December 8 to 11. She and her Indian counterpart, Sumitra Mahajan, will ink a Memorandum of Understanding, which would expand exchanges of Parliament delegation and training programme with a view to push the existing Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the countries. It may be recalled that Mahajan led an eight-member delegation of parliamentarians to Hanoi to take part in the 132nd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). During the Assembly, two MPs from India were elected unanimously to the Bureaux of the First Standing Committee of the IPU on Peace and International Security and the Second Standing Committee of the IPU on Sustainable Development, Finance and Trade, separately. The four-year term of the two MPs on these committees ends in 2018. Such visits further contribute not only to the mutual understanding but help define new contours in the bilateral Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
With a view to reinvigorate its economic engagement with the ASEAN countries and the larger Asia, the Modi Government has broadened the earlier look East policy and has given a new candour by naming it Act East policy. In this Indian strategy, Vietnam finds a special place. India is among the top 10 trading partners of Vietnam. After the elevation of the Strategic Partnership to a Comprehensive level, the economic component of the relationship now assumes a strategic thrust too. In particular, the key thrust areas where expansion is envisaged are garment and textile, pharmaceuticals, agro-commodities, leather and footwear, and engineering.
In terms of trade, both countries are working to increase the bilateral trade volume from around $7-8 billion to a target of $15 billion by 2020. Indian investment in Vietnam is also increasing with many Indian companies registered with 23 new projects with a capital outlay of $139 million in areas such as food processing, fertilisers, auto components, and textile accessories. Cooperation in the IT sector also looks promising.
While growth in the economic realm is making incremental progress, defence cooperation is the most significant pillar in the strategic partnership between the two countries. In this respect, the visit of Defence Minister lich assumes significance. Indian ships regularly make friendly port calls to Vietnam. For the first time, a Vietnamese ship participated in the International Fleet Review at Visakhapatnam, India, in February 2016. The objective of such cooperation between the two Navies is to maintain order in sea and secure maritime commerce from threats such as from piracy and terrorism. By engaging with Vietnam at sea, India wants also to convey the message to its other friendly countries that it is committed to global norms and to promote peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region, including the resolution of disputes in the SCS.
Indeed, the Indian Ocean is now more important than ever and maritime security issues become important to many countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Peace and stability in the Indian Ocean is crucial to economic development of many Asian countries. In particular, the behaviour of China in the Pacific and Indian Ocean has a direct impact on regional geopolitics. As a result, many countries in this region are readjusting their strategic foreign policy to deal with the new situation. In this perspective, India-Vietnam defence cooperation is a critical pillar in the strategic partnership and thus justifies its comprehensive character.
In view of its Act East policy, in which deepening economic engagement with the ASEAN is the biggest component, India’s stakes are equally high though it is not a claimant as its economic interests are exposed to vulnerability and therefore have to be protected. Apart from its limited direct economic interest, India cannot overlook the fact that the SCS is an important waterway for its trade and commerce not only with the ASEAN countries, but also with Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea.
In principle, India upholds the importance of safeguarding the freedom of navigation of the seas, the right of over-flight and the importance of peaceful settlement of disputes in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the law of the Seas (UNClOS). In several joint statements that India has issued with countries such as Vietnam, Japan, and the US, it has reiterated this position, cited its own experience that it accepted the tribunal’s verdict relating to its maritime boundary with Bangladesh and therefore expects China to show the same sentiment regarding the verdict of July 12, 2016, relating to the SCS.
For India, it is important that the Code of Conduct related to the SCS should be signed at the earliest when the rules based order is required by Chinese increasing militarisation. In that way, instead of asserting itself as the rising power, China should become a responsible power as is expected of a permanent member of the Security Council and as a signatory to the UNClOS.
Therefore, besides in accordance with the rubric of India’s Act East policy, deepening ties with Vietnam would contribute to peace and stability in the region. Indeed, Vietnam can be a critical player in the global production chain within the ASEAN and this complements India’s Act East policy. Furthermore, through Vietnam, India can seek to project its core national interest and articulate its strategic outlook in the Indo-Pacific region.
In conclusion, the Act East policy has outlined India as a responsible stakeholder in the region, and Vietnam is the most important anchor for India. In this perspective, the two recent visits of senior leaders of Vietnam to India are significant, which help define new contours in the bilateral Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with exploring potentials in strategic, defence and trade cooperation, and others, thus promoting peace, stability, and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region at large.
The writer is ICCR India Chair Visiting Professor at Reitaku University, Japan. The views expressed are his own and do not represent those either of the ICCR or the Government of India