Why in news? 

India and Vietnam signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on mutual logistics support in presence of the two Defence Ministers during the ongoing visit of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to the Southeast Asian nation.

Highlights:

• The Defence Ministers signed the ‘Joint Vision Statement on India-Vietnam Defence Partnership towards 2030’, which will significantly enhance the scope and scale of existing defence cooperation.
• This is a major step towards simplifying procedures for mutually beneficial logistic support and is the first such major agreement which Vietnam has signed with any country.
• Both Ministers also agreed for early finalisation of $US 500 million Defence Line of Credit extended to Vietnam.
• Defence Minister handed over to Vietnam 12 high-speed guard boats built under a $100 million Line of Credit granted to the Southeast Asian country by India. The initial five boats were manufactured at the L&T Shipyard in India and remaining seven were built in Hong Ha shipyard
• India will be gifting two simulators and monetary grant towards setting up of Language and IT Lab at Air Force Officers Training School for capacity building of Vietnamese armed forces.
• India has signed several logistics agreements including all Quad countries, France, Singapore and South Korea beginning with the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement with the U.S. in 2016.

What are logistics agreements?

• Logistics agreements are administrative arrangements facilitating access to military facilities for exchange of fuel and provisions on mutual agreement simplifying logistical support and increasing operational turnaround of the military when operating away from India.

India and Vietnam ties:

• India and Vietnam share a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership since 2016 and defence cooperation is a key pillar of this partnership. Vietnam is an important partner in India’s Act East policy and the Indo-Pacific vision, the statement added.
• Bilateral defence engagements have expanded over a period of time to include wide-ranging contacts between the two countries, including defence policy dialogues, military to military exchanges, high-level visits, capacity building and training programs, cooperation in U.N. Peace Keeping, ship visits and bilateral exercises.
• Vietnam, an important country of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), has territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea region.

• India has oil exploration projects in the Vietnamese waters in the South China Sea. India and Vietnam are boosting their maritime security cooperation in the last few years to protect common interests.