In an important development, India and Vietnam have agreed to strengthen their defence and security ties asserting that cooperation in the two key areas was an “important and effective pillar” of their strategic partnership.
This was announced on Sunday in a in a joint declaration issued by Ministry of External Affairs following a delegation level meeting between PM Narendra Modi and visiting Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang held on Saturday in New Delhi. The two leaders discussed the entire gamut of issues. The two sides also condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, including cross-border terrorism.
According to agency reports, a pact on cooperation in the field of atomic energy was also signed. The Vietnamese leader thanked PM Narendra Modi for extending support in building a nuclear research reactor for the use of nuclear energy.
During the joint press statement on Saturday PM Modi had said that the two countries decided to cooperate in defence production and explore opportunities in transfer of technology. The two sides also agreed to expedite the implementation of the $100 million Line of Credit for building high-speed patrol boats for Vietnam.
The two sides have also agreed that defence and security cooperation is an “important and effective pillar of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, and expressed satisfaction at the progress being made in this domain”.
India and Vietnam have agreed to further enhance defence ties through different means, including the exchanges of visits by senior-level defence delegations, regular senior-level dialogues and cooperation between the two armed forces.
They have also agreed to exchange port calls of naval and Coast Guard ships, capacity building projects, procurement of equipment, transfer of technology and cooperation in regional forums including ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting (ADMM).
The two leaders have agreed to operationalise the MoU signed between the National Security Council Secretariat of India and the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam and initiate the Deputy Ministerial-level dialogue to enhance cooperation in traditional and non-traditional security matters and undertake training and capacity building programmes.
The two countries have called for a comprehensive approach to deal with the menace of terrorism which should include countering radicalisation, recruitment, training and movement of terrorists including Foreign Terrorist Fighters.
The measures would include blocking sources of financing terrorism through organised crimes, money-laundering, smuggling of weapons of mass destruction and drug trafficking.
Without naming Pakistan, the two sides said that the approach should also be aimed at dismantling terrorist bases, safe havens and countering misuse of the internet, cyberspace, including social media and other communication techniques by terrorists.
The two sides further agreed that they would cooperate in building a strong consensus for early adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT), which was first proposed by India in 1996, , the document said.