Key pacts to be signed during President Pranab Mukherjee's visit to Vietnam

HANOI: India and Vietnam are likely to sign key agreements in the field of defence, trade and culture during the visit of President Pranab Mukherjee to this strategically-important country next month.

While India has decided to ramp up its engagement with Vietnam in the oil sector and deepen defence ties, Hanoi wants it to do more especially in maintaining freedom of navigation, maritime safety and security in the disputed South China Sea.

Due to its estranged ties with China, Vietnam is looking at India for a deeper defence cooperation which includes possible procurement of weaponry besides training especially that of the Navy.

India has been a major ally for Vietnam in the region and there is a working synergy between the armed forces of the two countries.

Vietnam is also looking at buying BrahMos missiles which is jointly manufactured by Russia and India. Vietnam is said to have requested India for submarine training and for conversion training for its pilots to fly Sukhoi-30 aircrafts.

Southeast Asian and Latin American countries have shown interest in acquiring the 290km range weapon system and it is possible to export the missile to certain friendly nations.

Defence Ministry sources in Delhi had said that Vietnam and Indonesia in South East Asia and Venezuela in Latin America have expressed willingness to procure the missile.

However, sources maintain that Indian defence cooperation is currently focussed on providing human resource development for the Vietnamese military including language learning and other training modules. They admitted that various other proposals are under different stages of discussion.

Another key area for cooperation is the oil sector. In a move that could rile China, which has publicly asked New Delhi to stay off from the resource-rich South China Sea, India is assessing whether to explore in five new blocks that have been offered by Vietnam.

Indian diplomats remained tight-lipped about the kind of agreements that would be signed during Mukherjee's visit in middle of next month.

India's envoy to Vietnam Preeti Saran did throw some light on the possible agreements in an interview to a local media network.

"We are holding discussions on the cooperation between Jet Airways and Vietnam Airlines, TATA and Vietnamese partners, on the issues relating to the petroleum exploration activities. These are very important sectors.

"Moreover, we are discussing on the restoration of Cham relics in My Son. We have no information yet of the outcome of the discussion. However, the visit of the Foreign Minister is the premise for the signing of important agreements during the upcoming high level meeting in September," she told local media network.

India and Vietnam, which already have inked agreements for sharing information in criminal offences, extradition of prisoners and transfer of sentenced people, are also looking at cooperation in tackling cyber crime,

India had also made Hanoi the offer of USD 100 million line of credit for the purchase of four offshore Patrol Vessels.

Indian Navy ships recently made a port call in Vietnam on their way back from India-US-Japan trilateral exercise off the coast of Japan.