India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi (L) poses for a photo with his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc at the Government office in Hanoi, Vietnam September 3, 2016.
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Indian foreign policy experts are of the opinion that Prime Minister Modi has sent out a bold message to China by visiting Vietnam, as all the countries in the region are strengthening their defence and security ties in an attempt to advance their “common” interests.
Military cooperation tops the discussions between Modi and Phuc.
In his candid comments reflecting India’s concerns, Modi said both India and China need to be “sensitive” to each other’s strategic interests and called for specific actions to “prevent growth of negative perception”.
People on social media condemned Modi’s financial aid worth $500 million to Vietnam in such a time when India itself is reeling from the flood crisis and majority of the people are not able to have a proper meal.
“After all, strong support from Washington and Tokyo has not yet worked in piling enough pressure on Beijing as Vietnam hoped, thus, how effective can India’s vague support be?” it said.
“Under such a backdrop, Modi’s visit to Vietnam has without doubt made Indians associate the tour with many strategic meanings, believing that New Delhi and Hanoi might jointly pile pressure on Beijing”, it said.
He said the two sides recognised the need to cooperate in responding to emerging regional challenges.
May said she supported Modi’s reform agenda and the United Kingdom was keen to participate in Make in India, Smart Cities and the Skill India Programme among others. “As two important countries in this region, we also feel it necessary to further our ties on regional and global issues of common concern”, said Modi, who is here on a day-long visit.
India had already signed an agreement to build offshore patrol boats for Vietnam, as part of the steps to give concrete shape to bilateral defence engagement.
The credit was for facilitating mutual defence cooperation and relationship that would contribute to stability, securities and prosperity in the region, Modi was quoted as saying by Reuters Saturday. This relationship has, however, now attained geopolitical dimensions with China, which has also been beaten back by Vietnam, making threatening noises against Indian support for oil exploration in Vietnamese waters as Beijing claims nearly the whole of the South China Sea as its own.
“For this, new trade and business opportunities will be tapped to achieve the trade target of $ 15 billion by 2020”.
Modi also called on President Tran Dai Quang, who asked for increased Indian investment in oil and gas sectors.
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Turnbull assured his country’s support to India’s bid for the NSG membership and the two leader agreed to deepen the bilateral defence and security cooperation.
