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The Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) hosted a delegation from Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam (DAV) from Hanoi on May 15, 2018. The delegation was led by Dr. Tran Viet Thai, Director General, Department of Policy Planning, Vietnam Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) and Deputy Director General, Institute for Foreign Policy and Strategic Studies, DAV. The other Vietnamese delegates were Mr. Vu Duy Thanh, Deputy Director General, Department of Policy Planning, Vietnam MOFA, Amb. Nguyen Duy Hung, Adviser, Institute for Foreign Policy and Strategic Studies, DAV, Mr. Tran Quang Chau, Researcher, Bien Dong Institute for Maritime Studies, DAV and Mr. Nguyen Duc Chinh, Researcher, Institute for Foreign Policy and Strategic Studies, DAV. The Indian side comprised of senior VIF faculty and experts from the larger Indian strategic fraternity. The interaction explored various facets of current global, regional and bilateral dynamics between India and Vietnam.

Vietnam has been a key pillar of India’s Act East Policy. In September 2016, during Indian Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Vietnam, both sides had formally upgraded their relationship to ‘Comprehensive Strategic Partnership’ from the existing ‘Strategic Partnership’. During the course of the interaction, the Indian and Vietnamese sides highlighted the need to increase both the ‘economic’ and ‘security & defense’ quotient of the bilateral partnership. To improve ties, a number of suggestions were listed from cooperation in capacity building in Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA), Search and Rescue and Humanitarian Assistance & Disaster Relief (HADR) to increasing people-to-people contacts and more dialogues between India and Vietnam.

The two sides also discussed the possible trajectory of on-going summit diplomacy regarding North Korea. Emphasis was also laid on peaceful resolution of disputes in South China Sea within the confines of international laws for maintenance of a rules-based maritime order. However, doubts were raised on the legally binding nature of the Code-of-Conduct for South China Sea. The Vietnamese side showed great appreciation for India’s maturity in abiding by the arbitral award regarding India-Bangladesh maritime dispute in the Bay of Bengal.

Deliberations were also held on the growing challenges with regard to non-traditional security threats. Water security is high on both the Indian and Vietnamese Agenda. Similarly, both sides also noted the growing reach of terrorism from South to Southeast Asia. There was agreement on the congruence of security concerns among the Quad countries and other regional powers in the Indo-Pacific, and the need to counter China’s growing unilateral aggression.

In summing up, both sides agreed that the contemporary return to great power rivalry in international politics would have far reaching and transformative impact on the global world order. Overall, the interaction was appraised as highly useful by all attendees with efforts to increase similar interactions in the future.