India to gift indigenously-built in-service Missile Corvette INS Kirpan to Vietnam

New Delhi: Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh yesterday hold bilateral talks with Minister of National Defence of Vietnam General Phan Van Giang yesterday in New Delhi. Mr Singh and his Vietnamese counterpart exchanged views on regional and global issues of mutual interest. The talks were held to further boost the defence cooperation between India and Vietnam. 

 

Defence Ministry said, progress on various bilateral defence cooperation initiatives was reviewed during the meeting, with both sides expressing satisfaction at the ongoing engagements. Both Ministers identified means to enhance existing areas of collaboration, especially in the field of defence industry cooperation, maritime security and multinational cooperation. The Raksha Mantri also announced the gifting of an indigenously-built in-service Missile Corvette INS Kirpan which will be a milestone in enhancing the capabilities of Vietnam People’s Navy.

As part of his engagements, the Defence Minister of Vietnam also visited DRDO headquarters and



discussed ways to enhance defence industrial capabilities by cooperation in defence research and joint production.

 

Earlier yesterday, the Vietnamese Minister of National Defence laid a wreath and paid homage to the Bravehearts at National War Memorial in New Delhi. Before the talks, Mr Giang inspected the Tri-Services' Guard of Honour.

 

The Vietnamese Minister of National Defence arrived in New Delhi Sunday on a two days official visit.  The Minister of National Defence of Vietnam is also scheduled to visit Agra during his stay in India. 

India and Vietnam share a comprehensive strategic partnership and bilateral defence relations are a strong pillar of this partnership. Defence engagements between the two nations have diversified to include wide-ranging contacts between the services, military-to-military exchanges, high-level visits, capacity building, training programmes, cooperation in UN Peacekeeping and bilateral exercises.