India enhances its ties with Vietnam

India and Vietnam signed several deals to strengthen economic and defense ties Oct. 28 during Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s two-day visit. Closer cooperation between New Delhi and Hanoi could cause concern for Beijing; India has been gaining influence in the South China Sea to counter China’s growing presence in the Indian Ocean, and Vietnam has been looking for help in its increasingly acrimonious territorial dispute with China in the South China Sea. However, India and Vietnam have other economic, political and military reasons to seek a closer relationship.

China’s naval forays into the Indian Ocean have increased, as has Beijing’s cooperation with regional countries such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. China’s moves in India’s neighborhood concern New Delhi, which is responding with its own efforts to increase its influence in the South China Sea region. Vietnam, meanwhile, has been looking for third-party involvement to help it secure its interests in the region, particularly amid its territorial dispute with Beijing in the South China Sea. Hanoi has made political progress with several other countries, including the United States, but Vietnam remains particularly close with Russia (its main weapons exporter) and India.