India, Vietnam likely to expand partnership

New Delhi: After joining the rest of the Quad in raising the pitch against Beijing’s ‘unilateral actions’ in the South China Sea, India may now seek to expand its defence and economic cooperation with Vietnam, which has been a victim of the intimidating manoeuvres of President Xi Jinping’s regime in the disputed waters.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Vietnamese counterpart Pham Minh Chinh will meet in New Delhi on Thursday. They are likely to discuss the possibility of expanding access for Indian and Vietnamese products in each other’s markets to boost bilateral economic cooperation. The defence cooperation, including India’s proposal for the sale of BrahMos missiles to Vietnam, is also expected to be high on the agenda.

“I would like to ask that we expand our...market access to each other's products such as through a suitable FTA between Vietnam and India. Of course, we need to discuss this,” the prime minister of the Southeast Asian nation said on Wednesday, a day after he arrived in New Delhi for a three-day visit. “I hope that you (India Inc) would continue to invest and invest more in Vietnam,” he said at a business event organised by FICCI.

Ahead of his meeting with Modi, Chinh suggested that India and Vietnam should aim to raise the bilateral trade volume to $20 billion.

The bilateral trade between India and Vietnam reached $14.82 billion in 2023-2024, registering a year-on-year increase of 0.76%. Vietnam’s exports to India went up by 6.26% to reach $9.34 billion in 2023-24. India’s exports to Vietnam dropped by 7.43% to $5.47 billion.

Vietnam is a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which already has a trade agreement with India.

India and the ASEAN last year reached an agreement to review the Free Trade Agreement for goods and set the target for completing the review by 2025.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar called on the prime minister of Vietnam on Wednesday.

Jaishankar recently joined Yoko Kamikawa of Japan, Penny Wong of Australia, and Antony Blinken of the United States for a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Quad in Tokyo. The meeting ended with the four nations issuing a joint statement, which expressed serious concern over the situation in the South China Sea and the East China Sea. A meeting of the Quad foreign ministers in Tokyo recently saw the four nations tacitly sending out a message to China, by conveying serious concern about the militarization of disputed features and coercive and intimidating manoeuvres in the South China Sea.

Modi and Chinh are also likely to discuss ways to boost bilateral defence cooperation. New Delhi’s offer of providing Vietnam with BrahMos, a supersonic cruise missile manufactured in India in collaboration with Russia.