India Gifts ‘INS Kirpan’ Warship To Vietnam As Rajnath Singh Leads Bilateral Defence Talks

India gave Vietnam the INS Kirpan, a missile corvette that was made in India and is already in use. After a session of bilateral talks in Delhi, India’s Defense Minister Rajnath Singh gave Vietnam’s General Phan Van Gang a gift from India. Rajnath Singh said this would be a big step toward making the Vietnam People’s Navy stronger. Phan Van Gang is in India for two days. Both sides are looking at how things are going with their joint defense projects. Officials from both countries said they were happy with how things were going.

An official statement from the Ministry of Defense said, “Both ministers identified ways to improve existing areas of collaboration, especially in the defense industry, maritime security, and international cooperation.”

The two countries have been putting a lot of effort into strengthening their defense ties and looking at what’s going on in the South China Sea. Notably, China has become more aggressive in the South China Sea area in recent years.

General Anil Chauhan, who is the Chief of Defense Staff, was one of the leaders who went to the talks.

Phan Van Gang went to the offices of the Defense Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) as part of his duties. There, he talked about ways to improve the defense industry through cooperation in defense research and joint production. The defense minister said that Vietnam is an important part of India’s Act East Policy and the Indo-Pacific region.

During the visit of Vietnam’s then-prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung to India in July 2007, official ties between the two countries were raised to the level of “strategic partnership.” In 2016, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi went to Vietnam, relations between the two countries were also raised to a “comprehensive strategic partnership.”

Between the two countries’ defense forces, there have been a lot of contacts, military-to-military exchanges, capacity building, and training programs in recent years. Earlier in the day, Phan Van Gang put a flower at the National War Memorial to honor the heroes who had died in war.