India, Vietnam Two-Day Naval Exercise In Sea South of Chinese Coast : China Frowns
Dated : 28 Dec 2020 (IST)
Indian and Vietnamese Navy concluded the two-day passage exercise in the Sea South Of Chinese Coast as part of efforts to boost maritime cooperation between the two countries.
This was EX PASSEX to reinforce maritime jointness and interoperability.
On December 25, INS KILTAN reached NhaRong Port, Ho Chi Minh City under Mission Sagar-III with 15 tonnes of Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) stores for flood-affected people of Central Vietnam. This mission was part of India’s HADR assistance to Vietnam during the ongoing pandemic.
Mission Sagar-III is being undertaken in accordance with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of SAGAR (Security And Growth for All in the Region) and reiterates India’s position as a dependable partner, and the Indian Navy as the Preferred Security Partner and First Responder. The Mission also highlights the importance accorded to ASEAN countries and further strengthens the existing bonds.
The warships of the two countries conducted a joint exercise, notwithstanding Beijing’s frowning over growing strategic cooperation between the two nations. China has shown aggressive behaviour against both With respect to territory….
Beijing has now clearly noted that India has of late been stepping up its strategic cooperation with Vietnam. This fact is clear from an article on a website authorised by the Central Military Commission of China which falsely claimed that India was finding it “severely challenging” to provide logistics support to the soldiers it had deployed along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
The above joint naval exercise took place about a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a virtual summit with his Vietnam counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc and formally handed over to him a high speed patrol boat, which was the first of a fleet of 12 India had pledged to provide the South-East Asian nation to help it guard its maritime boundary in the face of growing aggression of China. New Delhi is providing the patrol boats under a $100 million Line of Credit (LoC) it had earlier extended to Vietnam.
The Nautuna Sea ( South China Sea as called by Beijing ) is a major waterway and the sea lanes in this region account for over US $ 5 trillion of international trade. It has been at the centre of an escalating territorial conflict between China and its maritime neighbours – Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Philippines.
Vietnam has been most vocal among the South East Asian nations in opposing China’s territorial aggression in the region.
The summit between Modi and Phuc on December 21 saw New Delhi and Hanoi tacitly opposing Beijing’s latest move to press Vietnam and the other South-East Asian nations hard to insert in the proposed Code of Conduct on South China Sea certain clauses that would help China keep its rivals like India, the United States and other nations outside the region away from the disputed waters.
“India has never stopped searching for chips to counter China on the land boundary issue, which is an important reason for its strategic cooperation with Vietnam on the South China Sea issue and its exploration of oil and gas resources in disputed waters between China and Vietnam,” Liu Zongyi, Secretary General of the Center of China-South Asia Cooperation at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, wrote in the article, published by China Military Online web portal.
Liu’s article was in response to the recent summit between Modi and Phuc, who reaffirmed “the importance of maintaining peace, stability, security and freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea, while pursuing the peaceful resolution of disputes in accordance with international law, particularly the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), without resorting to threat or use of force.”
They also underscored the importance of non-militarisation and self-restraint in the conduct of all activities by claimants and all other states, and avoidance of actions that could further complicate the situation or escalate disputes affecting peace and stability, according to a joint statement issued after the summit.
What apparently rattled China was the joint statement issued after the summit between the Prime Ministers of India and Vietnam, emphasizing on the importance of the legal framework set out by the UNCLOS in determining maritime entitlements, sovereign rights, jurisdiction and legitimate interests over maritime zones.
India’s ONGC Videsh Limited has a long-standing partnership with PetroVietnam for exploration of oil and gas in Vietnam. China, however, has been protesting the role of the OVL of India and other foreign companies in exploration of hydrocarbons in the blocks in the continental shelf of Vietnam.
Thus New Delhi is not only only strengthening strategic cooperation with countries around the South China Sea, such as Vietnam and Indonesia, over the past few years, but had also built military facilities near the Malacca strait. Slowly China will see that India too can play the same game as started by China. Next India is already extending its cooperation with South Korea. Soon We will also have Similar Cooperation With Taiwan too.
