Parrikar off to S’pore, Vietnam

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 2

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar headed off to Singapore and Vietnam tonight to pursue two different tracks of the “Act East” policy.

In Singapore on June 3 and June 4, Parrikar will attend the Shangri-La Dialogue where, on the sidelines of the summit, he is slated to meet his counterparts from the US, Japan, France, UK, Canada and Switzerland. At the dialogue, Parrikar is expected to address India’s concerns on various issues in Asia.

On his second leg of his tour (June 5 and June 6), he will visit Vietnam, a country that has a defence cooperation agreement with India, and is now seeking the BrahMos missile. Parrikar will be accompanied by the DRDO Chief, Secretary (Defence Production), Chief of the Eastern Naval Command, Director General Military Training and Director Generation Operations of the IAF.

This will be Parrikar’s second visit to a country that is seeking the Brahmos. On May 22 and May 23, he was in the UAE, which is also keen to have the BrahMos in its arsenal. As of now, there is no hint that New Delhi has agreed to sell the missile to either of the two nations.

The missile, a joint venture between Russia and India, can be launched from ship or land. Its supersonic speed and the ability to skim the surface at heights as low as 10 m make it hard for an enemy’s radar to track. It is practically invulnerable to modern anti-missile and air defence systems.

Vietnam, along with China, is one of the six countries locked in a bitter dispute over navigation rights through the South China Sea. More than $70 billion worth of Indian trade is routed through these waters. India also has rights to two oil-drilling blocks off the Vietnam coast. India’s relations with Vietnam in the past few years have been keenly watched by China. When Russia sold the Kilo Class submarines to Vietnam, the Indian Navy trained the Vietnamese Navy.

India, on its part, is also setting up a satellite tracking and imaging centre in southern Vietnam that will give Hanoi access to pictures from Indian earth observation satellites that cover the region, including China and the South China Sea.

On May 23, the US announced an end to its embargo on sales of lethal arms to Vietnam, a historic step that draws a line under the two countries’ old enmity.