India gave the in-service missile cruiser INS Kirpan, which was made in India, to Vietnam to help that country’s navy. On June 19, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said this after bilateral talks with General Phan Van Gang, who was in town from Vietnam.
“Progress on various bilateral defense cooperation initiatives was reviewed during the meeting, and both sides expressed satisfaction with the ongoing engagements,” a Defense Ministry statement said about the talks. The statement also said that the two Ministers focused on improving cooperation between the defense industries of both countries and maritime security.
The Ministry said that the two Ministers talked about ways to improve areas where they already work together, especially in the defense business, maritime security, and working with other countries. As part of his duties, General Phan also went to the headquarters of the Defence Research and Development Organisation and talked with them about how to improve “defence industrial capabilities through cooperation in defense research and joint production.”
General Gang placed a wreath at the National War Memorial earlier in the day, and he was then given a Tri-Service guard of honor. He went to India for two days starting on June 18.
The INS Kirpan is a missile cruiser from the Khukri class. It weighs 1,350 tons and was put into service by the Navy on January 12, 1991. It can go faster than 25 knots and weighs close to 1,400 tons. It is 91 meters long, 11 meters wide, and has a beam of 11 meters. The ship has a medium-range gun, 30 mm close-range guns, chaff launchers, and surface-to-surface missiles. This gives it the ability to do many different things, including coastal and offshore patrol, coastal security, surface warfare, anti-piracy, and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations.
During Mr. Singh’s visit to Vietnam in June 2022, the two countries’ Defense Ministers signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on mutual logistics support. The two countries’ Defense Ministers also signed the “Joint Vision Statement on India-Vietnam defense partnership towards 2030,” which the Ministry said would greatly increase the size and scope of their current defense cooperation.
Under a $100 million Line of Credit (LoC) given in September 2014, Hanoi bought 12 high-speed patrol boats for the Vietnamese border guard force. In 2016, India added another $500 million to the defense line of credit, and talks are going on to figure out what weapons will be sent.
India has also said that it will give two simulators and some money to help set up a Language and IT Lab at the Air Force Officers Training School. This is to help the Vietnamese military get better at what it does.
Since 2016, India and Vietnam have had a Comprehensive Strategic relationship. One of the most important parts of this relationship is defense cooperation. The statement went on to say that Vietnam is an important part of India’s “Act East” strategy and the Indo-Pacific vision.
