Vietnam proposes five key focus areas in defence cooperation with India

After meeting, the defence secy and the deputy minister of national defence of Vietnam signed LoI to strengthen cooperation in the field of training, including exchange of instructors and experts

India and Vietnam have held a key defence meeting here during which it was proposed to have cooperation in emerging areas such as cyber security, information security, military medicine and submarine search and rescue, officials said on Friday.

The 14th India-Vietnam Defence Policy Dialogue took place in New Delhi on Thursday. It was co-chaired by Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane and Deputy Minister of National Defence of Vietnam Senior Lieutenant General Hoang Xuan Chien, they said.

"During the meeting, the two sides reviewed the range of bilateral defence cooperation issues and noted the transformative progress in the ties after the signing of the 'Joint Vision Statement on India-Vietnam Defence Partnership towards 2030' in June 2022 during the visit of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to Vietnam," the defence ministry said in a statement.

After the meeting, the defence secretary and the deputy minister of national defence of Vietnam signed a Letter of Intent to strengthen cooperation in the field of training, including exchange of instructors and experts.

"Vietnam proposed five focus areas for cooperation which included delegation exchanges and dialogue, staff-talks; Service-to-Service cooperation; education and training; and defence industry cooperation," the statement said.

The defence secretary welcomed the five-point proposal and proposed cooperation in emerging areas such as cyber security, information security, military medicine and submarine search and rescue, it said.

Aramane highlighted the potential of domestic defence industry to fulfill capacity and capability enhancement of friendly foreign countries and looked forward to fruitful partnership with Vietnam People's Armed Forces and their industries.

Defence cooperation is one of the strong pillars of Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between India and Vietnam. Vietnam is an important partner in India's Act East Policy and in the Indo-Pacific Region, it added.