India, Vietnam sign deals on strategic, defense partnership amid Chinese anxiety

Amid ongoing two-day visit of Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to India, the two countries signed seven agreements in the fields of strategic, defence and cultural partnership on Tuesday. After meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Vietnamese counterpart Dung, the two leaders addressed a joint press conference.

Speaking on the occasion, PM Modi termed Vietnam as an important pillar of India’s Look East Policy while his Vietnamese counterpart Dung said that there is a greater role for India in the region and international arena. This visit holds importance keeping in view that China’s top foreign policy official on Monday,  October 27 made his second visit to Vietnam in four months, as the neighbours work to repair ties strained to breaking point by a territorial dispute. According to a Channel News Asia report, Beijing had moved a deep-water oil rig into waters claimed by Hanoi in May, prompting a months-long high-seas stand-off and triggering deadly anti-China riots in Vietnam. The rig was removed in July.

This visit is being perceived as the cause for rising Chinese anxiety.

Earlier Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung had visited Bodhgaya in Bihar on Monday where he said, “Buddhism binds us together.”

Vietnam is also a victim of China’s hawkish policy in South China Sea and it seeks India’s “active support” to peacefully resolve all disputes and sought its greater linkages across the region, a Times of India report said this on Tuesday.

Ahead of his meeting with Prime Minister Modi, Vietnamese PM had made it clear that Vietnam has and will continue to allow ships from India, which is crucial in the light of a month back development when an Indian naval ship INS Airavat was asked to exit Chinese waters as it was approaching a Vietnamese port.

Underlining his Government’s policy to have a friendly relationship and cooperation with India, Tan clarified, “Vietnam supports India to increase multidimensional linkages with South East Asia. For the purpose of friendship and exchange, we have and will continue to allow ships from other countries including India to visit Vietnam.”

In fact, China has been showing opposition to Indian presence in the disputed South China Sea for oil exploration.

The report says that territorial disputes in the South China Sea involve both island and maritime claims among seven sovereign countries of the region which includes- Brunei, the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

As far as Vietnam’s stand on resolving the dispute is concerned, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said, “Vietnam is determined to protect its sovereignty over the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagos as well as its sovereign rights and jurisdiction rights in these waters.”

Report says that Itu Aba Island, also known as Taiping Island, of the South China Sea is one of many disputed islands in the South China Sea.

As China trying to lay a siege around India through Nepal, Pakistan and Maldives, Indian diplomacy is witnessing a drastic change under the new Government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Unlike the previous UPA Government, the present Modi-led Government is determined to not let China have its way.

In one such latest development, New Delhi has decided to go ahead with oil exploration in the disputed waters of South China Sea. India, in October 2011, had struck a deal with Vietnam to expand and promote oil exploration in South China Sea. But after China’s objection, it could not be implemented.

As it seeks to expand its maritime presence, China has met growing assertiveness from regional claimants like Japan, Vietnam, and the Philippines.


Sumber - Niti Central