India, Vietnam to add ‘new momentum’ to ties

■ China aggression issue discussed in meet

India on Tuesday held its 17th Meeting of the Joint Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technological Cooperation with its close friend Vietnam in which both nations discussed their Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) and “agreed to add new momentum to the economic and defence engagement between the two countries”. New Delhi said the Indo-Vietnam CSP “ensures peace, security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific”, a comment seen as a veiled indication towards China. Both India and Vietnam are understood to be already in constant touch with each other regarding their concerns over the aggressive Chinese military behaviour on various fronts in the past few months and the issue may have also been discussed on Tuesday. While India is facing Chinese military intransigence in the Ladakh sector, Vietnam is facing tensions with China in the South China Sea where it has a maritime territorial dispute with Beijing. Both countries have fought border wars with China in the past and they continue to have military tensions with Beijing.

The India-Vietnam meeting through video-conference on Tuesday was cochaired by external affairs minister S. Jaishankar while Vietnam was represented by its Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh. After Tuesday’s meeting, EAM Jaishankar tweeted, “Our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership keeps growing. Ensures peace, security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific.”

Vietnam is also the current chairman of the 10nation south-east Asian grouping ASEAN. Both sides on Tuesday also “agreed to coordinate closely at multilateral forums, including at the UN Security Council, where both India and Vietnam will serve concurrently as non-permanent members in 2021”. They also “agreed to step up cooperation and coordination at important regional forums under the ASEAN framework”.

New Delhi also “reaffirmed India’s development and capacity building assistance to Vietnam through initiatives such as Quick Impact Projects(QIP) ... as well as projects in water resource management in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta region... and heritage conservation” wherein “12 QIPs for implementation in Vietnam have been approved by the Government of India, including 7 QIPs in water resource management in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta Region and 5 QIPs related to construction of educational infrastructure in Vietnam”.

WHILE INDIA is facing Chinese military intransigence in the Ladakh sector, Vietnam is facing tensions with China in the South China Sea where it has a maritime territorial dispute with Beijing