The Air Chief Vietnam visit began on Monday, when Air Chief Marshal AP Singh, Chief of the Air Staff, arrived in Hanoi for a three day official trip and was received with a ceremonial welcome by the Vietnam People's Army.

Ambassador Tshering W. Sherpa met ACM AP Singh soon after he landed and briefed him on the state of India Vietnam relations before the formal engagements got under way.

Talks at the Air Defence and Air Force Headquarters

The reception was hosted by the Air Defence and Air Force Service of the Vietnam People's Army. It was followed by bilateral talks with Lieutenant General Vu Hong Son, who commands the Service. The two sides went over the current state of defence cooperation between the two air arms and looked at where it could be taken next.

Vietnam runs its fighter fleet and its ground based air defences under one command, which makes Lt Gen Vu Hong Son the natural counterpart for a visiting Indian air chief. The agenda, as the Indian mission described it, stayed on cooperation already in motion and the directions it might now take.


What the Air Chief Vietnam visit builds on

India and Vietnam upgraded their ties to an Enhanced Comprehensive Strategic Partnership a decade ago, and defence has become one of its busiest strands. In 2022 the two defence ministers signed a Joint Vision Statement on defence cooperation running to 2030, with an agreement on mutual logistics support, the first such pact Vietnam had signed with any partner.

The traffic has been steady since. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh was in Hanoi in May, where he met Vietnam's Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister General Phan Van Giang and called on General Secretary and President To Lam. Weeks before that, an Indian naval task group had called at Ho Chi Minh City. The Air Chief Vietnam visit continues that run of senior exchanges.

An air force relationship with its own history

The Sukhoi thread

The air link runs deep. India has trained Vietnamese pilots on the Su-30 and supported the fleet with spares and maintenance, and has offered overhaul help for the Su-30s and Vietnam's Kilo class submarines. Both air forces fly variants of the same Sukhoi family, which gives that work a shared technical base. ACM AP Singh has pushed hard to build more of that kit at home, most recently in his call for home built air power.

The BrahMos strand

The defence trade has moved fastest on missiles. Earlier this year India and Vietnam signed a supply agreement for the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, reported as an order for coastal batteries worth about Rs 6,000 crore and confirmed by India's Defence Secretary at the Shangri-La Dialogue in late May. That put Vietnam alongside the Philippines and Indonesia as a BrahMos buyer in the region. The missile did not come up in the account of Monday's talks, which stayed with the two air forces, but it is the most prominent deal in a defence trade India has worked to widen.

Hardware already in Vietnamese hands

The cooperation is not only on paper. In 2023 India handed over the Khukri class corvette INS Kirpan to the Vietnam People's Navy, which took it into service as HQ-26. India also carries a defence line of credit for Vietnam that has funded patrol boat construction, and the recent frigate and corvette call at Ho Chi Minh City kept the naval side of the partnership in view.