Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) in India have long been regarded as milch cows by the bureaucratic-political cabal of the country, which has been assiduous in milking them dry. It is important, therefore, for all right-thinking citizens to support the government’s still a little slow but reasonably steady effort to get the government out of the business of running businesses sans a few vital PSUs in sectors of strategic importance. But these exceptions are vital. It is the work done over the years by one from among the latter group of PSUs, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and its international arm ONGC Videsh, which laid the ground for a breakthrough meeting between Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his Vietnamese counterpart General Phan Van Giang in Hanoi on Wednesday. The leaders signed a Joint Vision Document which commits the countries to significantly enhance the scope and scale of bilateral defence-security ties by 2030 including reciprocal rights for their respective armed forces to use each other’s bases.
The role played by ONGC Videsh which is not only exploring offshore Vietnamese oil blocks ~ including in some maritime areas claimed by China ~ but is also actively involved in community outreach programmes such as the reconstruction of traditional Vietnamese community houses, is an exemplar of the continuity in Indian foreign policy over the past two decades. From Prime Ministers Atal Behari Vajpayee to Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi, the Look East and later Act East policies have had Vietnam as a core focus in the wake of Beijing’s expansionist moves in the Indo-Pacific and territorial claims in the South China Sea as it attempts to secure total control over the shipping lanes of the global trade routes which pass through the region. That Sino-Vietnamese ties are today probably at their lowest point since the 1979 border conflict between the countries is not lost on policymakers either in New Delhi or Hanoi as they intensify their bilateral engagement. Beijing has responded by massive funding of neighbouring Cambodia’s infrastructure, logistical, and security infrastructure but is getting increasingly restive at the growing closeness in Indo-Vietnamese ties.
It is against this backdrop that the significance of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on mutual logistics support with India inked by Vietnam ~ the first such major pact the latter has entered into with any country ~ must be seen. Because it exhibits Hanoi’s resoluteness in robustly standing up to China, making it unique in the comity of Southeast Asian nations in this respect.
India has in place such reciprocal logistics agreements with fellow Quad members the USA, Australia, and Japan (apart from a few other countries) but the one signed with Vietnam on Wednesday is arguably the most significant. What South Block now needs to prepare for is the blowback from China ~ a matter of when not if ~ by squaring the Quad, as it were, and readying them to aid India in consolidating its relationship with Vietnam to enhance security, trade, and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.