Lately, Indian Navy sent a warship to hold joint exercises
with Vietnamese warships to assert navigation rights on the South China Sea as
both countries try to boost maritime cooperation amid rising border disputes
with China.
The INS Kiltan, an anti-submarine warfare
corvette, took part in a two-day Passage Exercise or ‘PassEx’ with the
warships of Vietnam after it arrived at Ho Chi Minh City to deliver
humanitarian assistance for those affected by floods in central Vietnam. The Indian
Navy said that the drill was aimed to "reinforce maritime interoperability
and jointness."
The Indian Navy's assertion of navigation rights is on the
lines of the Freedom of Navigation patrols that the US regularly
takes out in the South China Sea to challenge Chinese territorial claims.
Beijing, which has made expansive maritime claims in the
South China Sea and militarized islands there, has watched the exercises
with a wary eye. Liu Zongyi Shanghai of the Institute of International Studies
(SIIS) wrote in the state-sponsored China Military Online that
the joint operation is a bid by India to exert pressure on China through
the South China Sea, to force it to back off from eastern Ladakh. The Indian
and Chinese militaries are locked in a stand-off in the Himalayan border region
of Ladakh after Chinese soldiers intruded into territory claimed by both
countries. A border clash in Galwan in June killed about 20 Indian
soldiers and an unspecified number of Chinese soldiers.
The opinion piece, authorized by the Central Military
Commission of China, says India's meddling with South China Seas and strategic
partnership with Vietnam was to counter China on the land boundary issue. It
said the Indian army was finding it "extremely challenging" to
supply the troops in the Galwan Valley and Pangong Tso lake area in Ladakh. But
those assertions were not independently verified and Chinese party mouth-pieces
are known to make such propaganda claims. India has refused to back
off in the face of Chinese aggression, with Indian troops moving quickly and
boldly to outmaneuver Chinese troops and occupy mountain ridges, putting
intruding Chinese troops at a tactical disadvantage.
Both nations have stationed thousands of troops in the
frigid heights and have dug in for the long haul, recent reports have said.
The Indian Navy also adopted an aggressive posture during
the Ladakh clashes and could, in the event of a war, hold an
advantage in the Indian Ocean basin through which Chinese shipping has to pass.
Zongyi added that India's recent strengthening of military
cooperation with Vietnam and Indonesia and building of military facilities near
the Malacca Strait was with an "important purpose of guarding against
China, even throttling its development."
Vietnam also has maritime disputes with China in the South
China Sea region. Though China claims sovereignty over the
region and its vast reserves of oil and gas, Vietnam has made counterclaims,
along with other littoral states like Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippine.
According to the Deccan Herald, the 'PassEx' comes a
week after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a virtual summit with his
Vietnam counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc. Modi had then formally handed over a
high-speed patrol boat, which was the first of a fleet of 12 that India had
promised to Vietnam to help it guard its maritime boundary in the face of
growing Chinese aggression. The leaders had also stressed the need to
maintain freedom of navigation and over flight in the South China Sea.
India's ONGC Videsh has a long-standing partnership with
PetroVietnam for exploration of oil and gas in Vietnam, which has irked China,
says Deccan Herald.
