India’s position on the South China Sea and the newly evolving defence partnership with the United States for the Asia-Pacific region will be in focus over the next week as Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads to Southeast Asia and China to participate in a series of bilateral and multilateral meetings.
The eastern outreach is important in view of the July 12 declaration of the Permanent Court of Arbitration challenging China’s territorial and maritime claims in the South China Sea region, the heart of Southeast Asia. The outreach will begin on September 2 with Mr. Modi leaving for Vietnam before proceeding to Hangzhou in China for the G-20 summit on September 4 and 5.
The trip to Vietnam will highlight growing strategic convergence between the two sides, which includes the possibility of India transferring BrahMos missiles to Vietnam. Preeti Saran, Secretary (East), External Affairs Ministry, on Thursday, however, refused to confirm if India would commit to supply the BrahMos missile system to Vietnam, and hinted that naval cooperation had been ongoing with the country.
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“Defence and strategic partnership with Vietnam more recently has covered defence procurement,” she said. Parallel to security and strategic partnership, India and Vietnam are cultural partners and the bilateral agenda will include archaeological support to Vietnam to safeguard the Cham temples of the country.
Vietnam is a significant partner of India as it is the country-coordinator of India in ASEAN. The Prime Ministerial delegation will then move to Hangzhou in China which is the venue of the 2016 G 20 summit. The delegation for G 20 will include Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar and the Indian sherpa for G20, NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya.
To meet Xi, ObamaADVERTISEMENT
Mr. Modi is likely to hold bilateral meetings with President Xi Jinping of China and President Barack Obama during the summit. Both the bilateral dialogues are significant since this will be the first time Mr. Modi is meeting Mr. Xi against the backdrop of the escalating war of words with Pakistan over the Balochistan province, which hosts a significant part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
The Obama-Modi dialogue will be the first since both sides signed the landmark Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement. Mr. Modi will return to the region on September 7 to attend the 14th India-ASEAN summit and the 11th East Asian Summit which will be held in Vientiane, Lao PDR.