Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung is in India from October 27-28, just a month after President Pranab Mukherjee’s state visit to Vietnam.
On the discussion table is a proposed pact aimed at providing military hardware to Vietnam’s armed forces. Last month, the two countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding that gives $100 million in credit to Hanoi to bolster its military hardware for purchasing patrol boats to boost coastal security.
Significantly, Mukherjee had presided over a new agreement between ONGC and Petro Vietnam for India to explore two more oil blocks in the South China Sea. India and Vietnam also took a strong approach to the territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
Vietnam, economically dependent on China has been trying to shift some of its trade to India.
The Vietnamese prime minister is accompanied by a 50-member high profile business delegation that wants to explore trade and investments in various sectors with an eye on reducing Hanoi’s economic dependence on Beijing.