India Vietnam defence ties advanced on Sunday as Defence Secretary Shri Rajesh Kumar Singh held talks in New Delhi with Vietnam's Deputy Minister of National Defence, Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Truong Thang. The meeting built on a high level bilateral between the Prime Ministers of the two countries on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit, and both delegations used the New Delhi round to carry that political engagement into the defence track.

The two sides framed the discussion around strengthening the bonds of friendship, advancing regional security, and deepening the bilateral Enhanced Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, the Ministry of Defence said.


A meeting anchored to the BRICS sideline talks

Singh and Sr Lt Gen Thang centred their conversation on accelerating joint initiatives, technology sharing and defence industrial collaboration. Both sides reaffirmed a shared commitment to expanding maritime and defence ties, aimed at a peaceful, stable and rule based regional order.

That maritime thread has been building for a while now, and it runs well beyond a single meeting. India's naval outreach to Vietnam has included a recent port call by INS Udaygiri at Ho Chi Minh City, part of a wider run of ship visits and coordination the two navies have kept up through the year.

Technology sharing anchors India Vietnam defence ties

Defence industrial cooperation between New Delhi and Hanoi already carries a concrete example on the books, in the shape of the BrahMos coastal battery supply arrangement agreed with Vietnam.

Sunday's talks did not add a fresh deliverable of that kind. They set direction instead. Both sides emphasised the value of close coordination in multilateral fora to manage what officials described as complex security dynamics across the region, according to the release issued after the meeting.

Coordination under the ADMM Plus construct

Singh and Thang specifically highlighted the importance of active engagement under the ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting Plus construct, the forum that brings the ten ASEAN states together with eight dialogue partners including India on defence matters. The Ministry of External Affairs has long treated ADMM Plus as one of the more useful multilateral tracks available to India in the Indo-Pacific.

The Experts' Working Groups

Both sides reaffirmed a joint commitment to enhancing practical defence cooperation through ASEAN led mechanisms. They pointed to the ADMM Plus Experts' Working Groups as vital for maintaining regional stability and for building collective security architectures across the Indo-Pacific.

Vietnam has held a seat at that table since the forum's creation in 2010. That multilateral habit now sits alongside the bilateral channel as one of the ways India Vietnam defence ties get managed day to day, a division of labour both sides referred to repeatedly in Sunday's discussion.

The next Defence Policy Dialogue, at Aero India 2027

The two sides agreed to hold the next round of the India Vietnam Defence Policy Dialogue in India, on the sidelines of Aero India 2027, according to a statement from the Ministry of Defence. The biennial show is scheduled for February 8 to 12 at Air Force Station Yelahanka in Bengaluru, which gives the two defence ministries a fixed date to reconvene rather than an open ended commitment.

Sunday's meeting was described as building directly on the strategic vision the two Prime Ministers set out at the BRICS Summit, carrying that political momentum into the working level of the defence relationship.