Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s visit to India injected a forthrightness in the bilateral relationship that may have a bearing beyond Delhi-Hanoi ties. Signalling a break from the over-cautiousness of the last few years, Delhi now seems candid about its intention to strengthen defence ties with Hanoi. ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), meanwhile, has signed pacts with PetroVietnam (PVN) to entrench itself in the South China Sea. In the changing geopolitical contours of the region — given China’s military rise and the US pivot challenging China’s assertiveness in maritime territorial disputes — Delhi must remember it is dealing with a new Vietnam, witnessing rapid growth and emerging as a regional power.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trips to the East Asia summit in Myanmar and the G20 summit in Australia offer the perfect context to demonstrate the transformation of India’s two-decade-old “Look East” policy into the “Act East” policy. In focus should be reinvigorating India’s ties with Indonesia, the world’s largest Islamic nation, a fast-growing economy and a democracy anchoring Southeast Asian institutions that is keen on re-emerging as a maritime power. Southeast Asia has long sought greater Indian maritime presence, but the fear of angering Beijing had pushed Delhi’s much-touted defence diplomacy into inertia. Beijing will not take kindly to OVL’s licence extension in Block 128, in an area claimed by China. But Delhi’s decision to underscore its strategic interests sends a reassuring message to Southeast Asia, as does the sale of patrol vessels to Vietnam and India’s commitment to modernise Hanoi’s defence and security forces.
Resource-rich Southeast Asia sits on key sea lines of communication (SLOCs), through which a lot of global trade and energy resources pass. It runs the danger of becoming the theatre of a great-power game, at the mercy of the fluctuating Sino-American dynamic. A secure Vietnam can stabilise a region central to India’s trade and security interests. Defence and maritime cooperation between India and Vietnam, extended to much of Southeast Asia, will maintain freedom of navigation in the SLOCs, ensuring the South China Sea remains a global commons. Delhi’s challenge is to mitigate negative consequences, such as with Beijing. What it must not do is restrict the broadening of its own geopolitical framework.
