1 Conference Paper ‘India and Vietnam: Defense and Strategic Cooperation’ Presented by Dr. Dhrubajyoti Bhattacharjee Research Fellow Indian Council of World Affairs at the International Conference on ‘Emerging Horizons in India-Vietnam Relations’ at Zakir Hussain Delhi College (University of Delhi), Jawaharlal Nehru Marg, New Delhi 3-4 July 2017
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1
Conference Paper
‘India and Vietnam: Defense and Strategic Cooperation’
Presented by
Dr. Dhrubajyoti Bhattacharjee
Research Fellow Indian Council of World Affairs
at the
International Conference
on
‘Emerging Horizons in India-Vietnam Relations’
at
Zakir Hussain Delhi College (University of Delhi),
Jawaharlal Nehru Marg, New Delhi
3-4 July 2017
2
Abstract: India and Vietnam havenurtured long standing diplomatic links, which can be
traced back in history. As various diplomats and statesmen pointed out the importance
of strengthening the ancient relations with Vietnam, which was further strengthened
and reiterated by former Indian PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee and PM Manmohan Singh’s
commitment in developing Sittwe and Dawei ports in Myanmar, opening the gateway for
the countries falling in the Mekong basin. Given the fact that both India and Vietnam,
apart from Malaysia, use the same basic defense equipments, imported from Russia,
cooperation based on training and capacity building became the foundation for defense
cooperation in the 90s. Relations got elevated to a new comprehensive strategic level,
when both the nations started cooperating on counter-insurgency training and sharing
of guerilla warfare techniques and tactics. This has been further accentuated by
cooperation in training of technicians and air-force pilots. The paper will try to outline
the trajectory of the defense and strategic relations between India and Vietnam in the
last two and half decades and how capacity building and cooperation have formed the
bedrock of bilateral trust.
In a world that is facing new challenges in the guise of actions adapted by state actors
assisted by non-state actors, relations between nations are being forged to balance and
counterweigh such expansions and threats. As Waltz has noted that these balances are
formed in between some or all states, consciously aiming to establish and maintain
balance, to deter some powerful states’ aim for regional or universal domination.1 It
has been also argued that the risk of major wars increases when there are power shifts
between major contenders in the system.2 When a shift in power positions occurs
between a rising challenger and a dominant status quo power, is thus a period of
competition for leadership and may be critical for systemic stability, and the role of
regional alliances become crucial for the maintenance of stability.
India and the nations in Southeast Asia, has deep links that dates back to
history. The countries of South-East Asia were rich in minerals and spices. So this
region was also called Suvarna Bhumi (the land of God). The cultural and economic
relations that has grown through history, dates back to the ages of the Champa and
later with the Mauryan and Gupta civilizations, which has built a deep-seated strategic
relation between India and the nations in South East Asia. With changing national and
regional dynamics, moulded in their colonial histories, nations have drifted apart, but
the historical ties, keep them connected. The links embedded in Buddhism, language,
social structure, as well as mindset has made re-building linkages much easier than
1 Kenneth Waltz (1979), Theory of International Politics, McGraw-Hill, p. 119
2 AFK Organski, World Politics, Knopf, 1958
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others. Though it might seem that nations are coming closer to each other as to
necessitate strategic balancing in the region, but it is not a major fulcrum on which
relations are growing.
Though India has various political, social, economic and strategic relations with
most of the Southeast Asian nations, Vietnam remain among the most important
Southeast Asian nation for India’s security interests. Tagore poetically stated about
the closeness that people of India and Vietnam had a link that was embedded in
history.3 People of Vietnam followed and resolutely supported the freedom struggle in
India, where Mahatma Gandhi and other freedom fighters were held in high esteem.4
Nehru considered Ho Chi Minh as “a great revolutionary and an almost legendary
hero”.5 Even while facing international reprimand, India stood close to its belief to
support Vietnam in its testing times during the 60s and 70s, which was well
appreciated by Vietnam.6
India and Vietnam, strategically had remained closer to the Soviet Union, than
the US or China due to ideological differences, their individual strategic relations with
either US or China, their relations with neighbours and Cold War politics that brought
them closer. The relations though had ancient historical linkages; the present Indo-
Vietnam relations were first forged between first Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal
Nehru and President Ho Chi Minh making state visits to each other’s country during
the 50s. Indian Prime Minister Nehru was the first head of government to visit Hanoi,
barely a week after the Viet Minh took over from the French in 1954. India supported
the Hanoi government during the Vietnam War, souring relations with the United
States. Both countries fought border wars with China: India in 1962 (when Vietnam
sided with its then-patron in Beijing) and Vietnam in 1979 (when India, deciding not
to hold a grudge, sided with Vietnam). Throughout the Cold War period, both India
and Vietnam maintained close ties with the Soviet Union—and their shared reliance
on Warsaw Pact military hardware remains a powerful bond two decades after the
dissolution of the USSR.7 In the various joint communiqués that has evolved between
3Nguyen Dang Thuc, “Tagore in Vietnam”, in Rabindranath Tagore: A Centenary Volume 1861 – 1961,
Quoted in Birendra Prasad, Indian Nationalism and Asia 1940-1947, Delhi 1979, p. 90
4Vo Von Sung, “ Common Bonds of Friendship and Cooperation”, in TN Kaul (ed), India and Indochina:
Perspectives of Cooperation, New Delhi, 1987, p. 14
5Ton That Thien, India and Southeast Asia: 1947-1960, Geneva, 1960, p. 112
6Dr. C. Ravindranatha Reddy, India and Vietnam: Era of Friendship and Cooperation 1947-1991, New Delhi,
Emerald Publishers, Chennai, 2009, p. 71
7 Jonah Blank, Jennifer D. P. Moroney, Angel Rabasa, Bonny Lin, “Look East, Cross Black Waters: India’s
Interest in Southeast Asia”, RAND Corporation, 2015, p. 92
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Indian and Vietnamese leadership, strengthening of peace and stability of the region
has been stressed upon. Then External Affairs Minister and later PM Narasimha Rao
stated clearly that India and Vietnam has to pave an avenue for a lasting peace without
abandoning principles. On the same lines, PM Rajiv Gandhi pointed out that progress
brought new challenges. Both the nations should have the flexibility of mind and spirit
which enabled the nations to recognise new challenges and work up befitting
responses.8Rajiv Gandhi stated “Vietnam is a true and sincere friend of India with
whom we enjoy ... many shared geopolitical perceptions. We have established a strong
political understanding that will strengthen and safeguard the forces of peace and
stability in Asia”.9
From the time India adapted a policy of developing relations with its eastern
neighbours in earnest, the nations that already had close strategic links with India
were Singapore and Vietnam. Strategically, the relationship between India and
Vietnam started getting a formal shape after India joined the ASEAN Regional Forum
(ARF) in 1996. Within that time frame, India established a MoU on defence
cooperation with Malaysia, which established a Malaysia-India Defence Cooperation
Meeting (MIDCOM) at the senior officer level. MIDCOM meetings started between
India and Malaysia from 1993.10 Politically, Vietnam was a viable option for Indian
decision makers as the other neighbours Myanmar was under a strong military junta,
while Cambodia and Laos had strict communist regimes. India had close economic
and strategic links with Singapore, while Thailand’s closer ties with China, has
instigated India to build a closer link with the nation. Vietnam, after DoiMoi in 1986,
had reformed its economic policies in a manner, which smoothened the way for
international economic and strategic collaborations.
8 India Vietnam Joint Statement during the visit of Prime Minister Pham Van Dong to April 1980 (Vietnam
(Hanoi), Vol. XXI, No.2, 1980, p. 19); Establishment of India-Vietnam Joint Commission in December 1982
during the visit of Vietnamese Foreign Minister inIndia (BBC, SWB, FE/7213/A311-2,20 December 1982);
Speech of the Prime Minister, Shri Rajiv Gandhi, at the banquet held in honour of His Excellency Nguyen
Van
Linh, General Secretary of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, New Delhi, 25 January, 1989 (Directorate of
Advertising and Visual Publicity, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, March
1989)
9Government ofIndia, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Rajiv Gandhi Statements on Foreign
Policy, April-June 1988, (New Delhi, 1988), p.9
10Pankaj Jha, “India’s Defence Diplomacy in Southeast Asia”, Strategic Analysis, Vol 5. No 1. January 2011,
p. 53, http://www.idsa.in/system/files/jds_5_1_pkjha.pdf
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In 2007, during the state visit of Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to
India, Vietnam and India agreed to upgrade the comprehensive cooperation
established in 2003 between the two countries to a strategic partnership.The strategic
partnership encompassed bilateral relations in the political, economic, security,
defense, cultural, scientific and technological dimensions and steers their cooperation
in regional and multilateral fora.Both sides expressed their ‘endeavour to develop a
strategic dimension to their partnership for the mutual benefit of their peoples and to
contribute to peace, stability, cooperation and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region
and the world at large’.11
The strategic partnership between Vietnam and India was based on ‘traditional
friendship, mutual understanding, strong trust, support and convergence of views on
various regional and international issues.’12The 2007Joint Declarationon Vietnam-
IndiaStrategic Partnership states that the two sides “agreed to establish a Strategic
Dialogue at the level of Vice Ministers in the Foreign Office” which has been taking
place in regular intervals.13 The present Comprehensive Strategic Partnership has been
established to build a platform for attaining a comprehensive understanding of each
other’s regional strategic compulsions, and a deeper understanding of each other’s
strategic needs and interests.
India appreciated Vietnam’s support for upgrading India-Vietnam relationship
to a “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership” during Prime Minister Modi’s visit to
Vietnam, September 2-3, 2016. Previously, India and Vietnam committed to a strategic
partnership between the two countries during a meeting in New Delhi between former
Vietnamese defence minister PhùngQuang Thanh and Prime Minister Narendra Modi
in May 2015. In October 27-28, 2014, the previous Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen
11 Ministry of External Affairs (Government of India), Joint Declaration on the Framework of
Comprehensive Cooperation between the Republic of India and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam as they
enter the 21st Century, May 01, 2003, at http://mea.gov.in/bilateral-