Manohar Parrikar to take along defence industry delegation to Vietnam with aim to boost military relations

NEW DELHI: Days after US President Barak Obama’s visit to Vietnam, India is sending a high-level defence industry delegation to the strategically-located neighbour of China.

The industry delegation — representing most major Indian arms companies — will accompany defence minister Manohar Parrikar to Vietnam early next month.

The visit comes even as India is looking at increasing its military engagement with the nation to counter an increasing Chinese footprint in the Indian Ocean that is supported by the People’s Liberation Army’s naval base at Hainan island, located adjacent to Vietnam.

Officials have told ET that the defence ministry is in the process of selecting the industry delegation that will look at joint development and production orders from Vietnam that already has a commonality of military platforms with India, most of them of Russian origin, including submarines and frigates.

India has identified Vietnam as a nation to which arms exports can be made freely, even for cutting-edge systems like warship destroying Brahmos missile. This comes as Chinese arms companies increase their presence in India’s immediate neighbourhood, including sales of submarines to Pakistan and military systems to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. While the official delegation is being firmed up, it could include upwards of 15 private sector representatives, including executives from L&T, Tata and Reliance Defence, besides participation of public sector units like Brahmos. The final selection is to be made by Parrikar who will also be visiting Singapore for the Shangri La dialogue as part of his overseas tour.

Defence analysts say that there is a case for increased exports to Vietnam that would boost the Indian industry. “The MoD is finally using defence sales as an instrument of regional diplomacy with the proposed export of four naval patrol vessels from GRSE (Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers) to Vietnam. The Brahmos could present itself as another viable export product. Such cases when approved will bolster the business cases under the Make in India campaign,” Ankur Gupta of EY India told ET. India’s defence exports remain minuscule but have shot up exponentially over the past two years.

This has been spurred by the policy changes that makes it easier to export military stores and equipment and doing away with a provision that demanded multiple assurances by foreign governments even for the sale of components and parts by Indian entities. India also has a defence export strategy that looks at diplomacy as a major tool for exports, including the granting of line of credit to friendly foreign nations for purchase of military equipment.