Looking to increase defence cooperation with India, Vietnam Communist party general secretary Nguyen Phu Trong also requested New Delhi for conversion training for Vietnamese pilots to fly Sukhoi-30 aircrafts.
Vietnam formally requested India to supply the Indo-Russian BrahMos cruise missiles at a meeting in New Delhi, informed sources told RIR. The request was made when Vietnam Communist party general secretary Nguyen Phu Trong visited the Indian capital, the sources said, adding that the Southeast Asian country was looking at enhancing security cooperation with India.
Informal negotiations had been going between the countries for the joint Indo-Russian missiles that are being manufactured in India. Vietnam’s interest was renewed as a plan between Russia and the country to jointly produce a modified anti-ship missile is moving a slow pace, the sources told RIR. While Moscow and Hanoi to develop a joint missile analogous to Russia's Kh-35 Uran, using BrahMos as a model, Vietnam is looking at India to supply the missiles to meet its immediate requirement. It remains unclear whether India will be able to supply the missiles in the near future.
BrahMos officials declined to comment on the negotiations between India and Vietnam.
During Phu Trong’s visits, requests were also made to India for submarine training and for conversion training for Vietnamese pilots to fly Sukhoi-30 aircrafts. Sources told RIR that India would be ready to supply the missiles, as it was looking for international buyers and countries like Malaysia and Indonesia had already expressed interests. They added that New Delhi was also ready to provide training for Vietnamese pilots but were cautious about further military cooperation keeping the China factor in mind. Beijing has been viewing India’s growing presence in Vietnam with a degree of suspicion, the sources added. India and Vietnam have traditionally maintained friendly and cordial relations and leading analysts suggest that the
countries could be at the forefront of a new kind of non-aligned movement.
BrahMos cruise missiles have been adopted by India's Army and the Navy’s surface ships. The Indian Air Force has also ordered a batch of land-based missiles. Work is also underway to adapt the missile to Su-30MKI planes used by the Indian Air Force. BrahMos is an acronym of the two rivers: Brahmaputra in India and Moskva in Russia.
(Russia & India Report)
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