A long history of territorial dispute with a common country, a legacy of mutual support for each other’s greatest wars, a common arms supplier and resultant similar problems, and yet not even a single direct flight connecting their respective capitals. This is the irony of India - Vietnam relations.
Nevertheless, both are not reluctant partners. In fact, there is a realization in the Indian corridors of power of the dire need to develop closer strategic, economic and military ties with Vietnam. The recent visit of Indian President, Pratibha Devisingh Patil, to Vietnam should be seen in that context. This was a visit by an Indian head of state after a gap of more than a decade and a half, the last being of erstwhile president R. Venkatraman in 1991 when India had just started the ‘Look East Policy’.
A significant feature of President’s visit in 2008 was the large 52-member business delegation that accompanied her. This indicates India’s desire for close economic engagement with Vietnam. This is important since the world is facing an economic slump and exploring new possibilities of economic cooperation would help boost bilateral trade. Vietnam would be relatively a new market for India and vice-versa. Indian President’s idea of making Mumbai and Ho Chi Minh City ‘sister cities’ attracted many. How this is will be realised is yet to be seen.
India-Vietnam relations have been multi-faceted. India supported Vietnam in its war against the U.S., and Vietnam did the same during India’s war of 1971 and Kargil in 1999. India’s non-alignment policy has always helped it share ideas on global issues with Vietnam on a common platform. Today, India assists Vietnam in training its submariners, guerrilla war fighting and training of air force pilots. Joint naval exercises, coordinated sea-patrolling and simulation exercises are a regular practice. As part of the Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2007, India agreed to transfer 5,000 naval spare parts (belonging to Petya class submarines) to Vietnam for its naval upgradation.
Balancing China to avert any potential conflict is and should be part of the larger agenda of this relationship. Both India and Vietnam have unsettled territorial disputes with (and have lost wars against) China. A military strategic understanding (and possibly collective security mechanism) would certainly boost their stature against their common rival. The joint declaration of 6 July, 2007 was indeed a step towards that goal.
However, the key lies in economic cooperation, which has been little so far. India and Vietnam are different sized economies. While India is 1132 US $ strong and is destined to become the fourth largest economy by 2050, Vietnam is a 71 billion US $ economy. Both countries have achieved more than six % average annual growth in the recent past. Both have a huge young population (which apparently is lacking in Japan, China and EU countries), and both stand in the list of five most lucrative markets worldwide along with China.
Despite bilateral trade increasing manifold in recent years, India is still the tenth largest exporter to Vietnam, and the bilateral trade is a humble US $ 1.3 billion (75 million US $ in 1990-91). Many areas of cooperation are yet to be explored. Agriculture technology and products, credit, higher education, IT sector, research, fishery, finance and trade are possible areas of cooperation. Ensuring energy security and food security also lend themselves to mutual cooperation. Vietnam is a major off shore oil producer in South China Sea and has an incentive to deeply engage India so as to strengthen its claims in that area and balance China. Moreover, such cooperation would help India’s energy security. Incidentally, while the President was on her visit to Vietnam, the horrendous Mumbai terror attacks happened. The hijacked ship was Vietnam bound. Hanoi took serious note of it and has assured New Delhi of sharing all relevant information. This would certainly bring India and Vietnam closer in fighting terrorism.
During the visit, India also offered its expertise in development of infrastructure, engineering, transport and power generation projects, as also in human resource development. For India, there are many potential sectors of support from Vietnam, such as marine produce, processing of agricultural products, coffee, pepper, rice etc. Additionally, it is believed that the Pact on trade in goods with ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) might help in boosting trade between the two. Apart from ASEAN, India and Vietnam are members of the sub-regional grouping Mekong Ganga Cooperation (MGC). Established on November 10, 2000 at Vientiane, MGC comprises 6 members -- Cambodia, Laos PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and India. Primary areas of cooperation include tourism, culture, transportation linkages and education. MGC holds promise in terms of sub-regional cooperation as Phase II of India’s Look East Policy has an exclusive focus on CLMV countries: Cambodia, Laos PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam. Despite the fact that the Greater Mekong Initiative and China’s rising trade with members of MGC overshadows the group, there is a lot of potential. The driving force, however, has to be an Indian initiative to enhance mutual cooperation. India should also try to bring Vietnam in BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) for a more comprehensive engagement. Presence of Vietnam along with Thailand (already a BIMSTEC member) would strengthen India’s presence in East Asia.
Endeavors to enhance people to people contact are also needed, and tourism could help in this regard. This is important in the light of the fact that both the countries share cultural roots, which are more than a thousand year old. More than half of Vietnamese population is Buddhist (Mahayana 50 percent and Theravada Buddhists 13 percent). Indian Buddhist places could become a major religious and tourist attraction for them. Being multi-ethnic societies, both India and Vietnam can learn from each others experience in tackling problems of ethnic unrest.
However, there is a lot more to be done to ensure that India and Vietnam stand together not only in terms of military and strategic cooperation, but also culturally and economically. For a broader and deeper engagement with Vietnam, India must ensure that initiatives taken during the President’s visit are supplemented with regular ministerial meetings and substantiated by follow-ups.
