India Vietnam ties take new height
India and Vietnam have agreed on a slew of measures to further expand their relations in defence cooperation and ‘take it to a new height’. The Indian Defence Minister Mr. AK Antony who is on a three day visit to Vietnam, announced at the meeting with his counterpart General Phung Quang Thanh in Hanoi today that New Delhi will transfer 5000 naval spares belonging to Petya class of ship to Vietnam to make many of the ageing ships operational. He also announced the deputation of a four member team to impart training on UN Peace Keeping Operations in the first half of next year. The two sides also agreed to set up a Joint Working Group to facilitate the signing of MOU on defence cooperation. Shri Antony said the measures taken today ‘will open a new chapter in defence cooperation between the two countries that will take the strategic partnership ahead’.
Gen Phung Quang Thanh in his remarks put forward various proposals including training of Vietnamese Defence Personnel, enhancing the exchanges of delegations, expanding training cooperation and cooperation between the defence industries of the two countries. He also suggested increase in the frequency of goodwill visits by naval ships, application of information technology in defence and e- technology and technical support to Vietnamese navy. The Vietnamese Defence Minister expressed gratitude to India for providing training to armed forces officers in various areas and said ‘they are bringing back valuable knowledge and skills to their work areas’. So far, a total of 49 officers have attended various Army and Navy Courses and 64 officers have attended English language courses.
The Indian Defence Minister also drove down to the modest residence of Gen Vo Nguyen Giap in Hanoi today to call on the Vietnamese legendary figure who was instrumental in defeating three of five Permanent Members of the UN Security Council- France, US and China. He was the longest serving Defence Minister of Vietnam who faced most of the incursions and invasions on the Vietnamese territory as head of the military. He served from 1945 to 1979. Gen Giap went to the same school in Hue in Central Vietnam as Ho Chi Minh and late Prime Minister Pham Van Dong.
Now in his nineties, Gen Giap appears frail but showed no signs of memory loss as he recounted vividly fond remembrances of his two visits to India when he went to New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and the Andaman & Nicobar islands. Gen Giap recalled the contributions of Jawahar Lal Nehru and Ho Chi Minh to provide a solid foundation to Indo-Vietnamese relations. He also recalled the contributions India has made to Vietnam during the war periods, for the unification as also for its reconstruction. “Therefore, I feel like meeting old friends”, he told Shri Antony. Gen Giap appreciated the giant strides made by India in science & technology, especially, in IT and expressed the hope that ‘ the Indian advantage’ will also be extended to the people of Vietnam.
Hanoi has welcomed the outcome of the talks between the Defence Ministers of India and Vietnam held here yesterday. The Vietnamese Prime Minister Mr. Nguyen Tan Dung complimented the Indian Defence Minister, when the latter called on him last evening, for announcing a series of measures to consolidate and expand defence cooperation between the two countries to take it to newer heights. Mr. Dung said the strategic partnership between India and Vietnam ‘will further speed up peace, stability and prosperous development in the region and the world’.
Describing his ongoing visit as a continuation of the dialogue that Mr. Dung had with the Prime Minister Dr. Man Mohan Singh in New Delhi last July, Mr. Antony said the two countries are in the process of setting up a Joint Working Group for drawing up a comprehensive MoU on Defence Cooperation.