India, Vietnam to speed up co-op in tech, defence

Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh and Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of National Defence Senior Lt Gen Nguyen Truong Thang met on Sunday and reaffirmed a commitment to stronger maritime and defence ties for regional security.

The two mentioned a shared commitment to expanding maritime and defence ties to ensure a peaceful, stable, and rule-based regional security architecture, the ministry said in its statement.

The meeting happened a day after bilateral meeting between PM Narendra Modi and his Vietnamese counterpart Le Minh Hung met on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit.

Modi, in an X post on Saturday, said: “We had productive discussions on deepening defence and security cooperation, including the proposed 2+2 mechanism. Expanding cooperation in energy, rare earths and space.”

Meanwhile, during Sunday’s meeting, India and Vietnam strongly emphasised the value of close coordination in multilateral fora to address complex security dynamics. They especially highlighted the importance of active engagement under the ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting Plus (ADMM-Plus) construct.

They also agreed on the scheduled conduct of the next Defence Policy Dialogue to be hosted in India on the sidelines of Aero India-2027.