India and Vietnam to open a “new chapter” in defence cooperation: AK Antony

Hanoi: 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’. Defence minister, 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 ships to Vietnam, in order to make many of their 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. 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’.

Antony highlighted the traditionally close and cordial relations between India and Vietnam. He also congratulated Vietnam on being elected as non-permanent member of UN Security Council for a period of two years and said New Delhi attaches tremendous importance to the Strategic Partnership forged between the two prime ministers in July this year.

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.

Earlier, on his arrival at the ministry of defence headquarters, Antony inspected an inter-services guard of honour.

As part of his day’s engagements Antony also drove down to the residence of legendary Vietnamese guerrilla commander and later on the first army chief and also its longest serving defence minister, Vo Nguyen Giap. UnderGiap’s command, first North Vietnam defeated French and US forces and then a unified Vietnam defeated Chinese forces in bitter border clashes.

In his nineties now, Gen Giap 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 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.

Gen Giap presented a copy of his memoir “ People’s War, People’s Army” to the Indian defence minister.