SINGAPORE: India and Vietnam on Wednesday decided to extend the frontiers of their defence-related cooperation. As the centrepiece, New Delhi agreed to expand assistance to Hanoi in its ongoing military modernisation, according to sources.
The modalities of toning up cooperation were discussed, from a broad political perspective, by Defence Minister A. K. Antony and his Vietnamese counterpart Phung Quang Thanh in Hanoi. Their talks followed India's participation in the first-ever Asia-Pacific Defence Ministers' meeting, which ended in the Vietnamese capital on Tuesday.
Mr. Antony later called on Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. They discussed regional and international issues of common interest in the context of India's ongoing participation in the East Asia Summit process and New Delhi's growing links with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations .
Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar and India's Ambassador Ranjit Rae assisted Mr. Antony in these talks. Both countries expressed satisfaction at the progress made so far under their defence cooperation memorandum of November 2009.
Specifically, India now agreed to share its expertise in defence-related information technology and the usage of English for military purposes. Such cooperation was seen as a promising possibility, sources said.
However, it was not immediately clear whether the model of India's assistance to Indonesia, specifically an army-oriented IT lab, would apply to Vietnam as well.
There was no authoritative word on whether Vietnam would, like Malaysia, seek to capitalise on India's expertise in the training of pilots for Russian-made combat aircraft.
However, sources said the two sides discussed military training, as different from joint exercises, as a key aspect of cooperation.
In a press release, the Defence Ministry later announced that India “will provide support to Vietnam to enhance and upgrade the capabilities of [its] services in general and navy in particular. New Delhi would also help Hanoi in its programme of capacity-building for repair and maintenance.
New Delhi agreed to host the Vietnamese Army for joint training in mountain and jungle warfare at a suitable Indian location next year. India offered to help Vietnam in mastering the art of United Nations peace-keeping operations.
Cooperation between the defence institutes of the two countries was also agreed upon.
Vietnam, for its part, wanted more port-calls by the Indian warships and offered maintenance-and-repair facilities at its ports.
No comments:
Post a Comment