INS Kirpan

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 Context:  India gifted the indigenously-built in-service missile corvette INS Kirpan to Viet- nam to enhance its naval capabilities.

About INS Kirpan

• INS Kirpan is a Khukri class missile corvette and able to displace 1,350 tonne.
• It was built by Garden Reach shipbuilders and Engineers.
• It was commissioned into the Navy on January 12, 1991.
• It is capable of speed in excess of 25 knots.
• The ship is fitted with a medium range gun, 30 mm close range guns, chaff launchers, and surface to surface missiles, which enables it to perform a wide variety of roles.
• The can perform coastal and offshore patrol, coastal security, surface warfare, anti-piracy, and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations.

India-Vietnam Defense relations

• In June 2022, India and Vietnam signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on mutual logistics support.
• The two countries have signed the “Joint Vision Statement on India-Vietnam defence partnership towards 2030.”
• Hanoi has procured 12 high speed patrol boats for the Vietnamese border guard force under a $100 million Line of Credit (LoC) extended in September 2014.
• In 2016, India extended another $500 million defence LoC.
• India has also announced gifting two simulators and monetary grant towards the setting up of a Language and IT Lab at the Air Force Officers Training School for capacity building in the Vietnamese armed forces.
• India and Vietnam have shared a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership since 2016.
• Vietnam was the first country in the Southeast Asian region with whom India had signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement in 2007.
• In the early 2000s, both sides also signed a defence protocol through which Vietnam could procure military helicopters and equipment for the repair of Vietnamese aircraft.

Conclusion

Vietnam is an important player in India’s Act East policy and also its Indo-Pacific vision. The defence cooperation is a key pillar of this partnership. Vietnam has mostly faced the brunt of Chinese aggression in the South China Sea since the 1970s from China’s occupation of Paracels in 1974, to the occupation of Spratlys in the 1980s. This threat has only intensified in recent times. Cooperation between two countries would help in long run to fight Chinese territorial ambitions and to safeguard Indo-Pacific.

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