Small piece of news which might irritate the evil red Chinese dragon is that Vietnam has given India the permission to drop anchor at Nha Trang port during naval exercises and goodwill visit.
Why is this so important? Because uptill now most foreign countries including India was only allowed into Halong Bay near Hanoi.While Nha Trang port is only few kilometers away from mainland China and bang in the middle of South China Sea. This will give India an opportunity to create a permanent presence in that area which is essentially Chinese backyard.
We all know that Vietnam is embroiled into a bloody war with China over some of the islands and the actual demarcation in South China Sea. This move by India will be surely seen as aggressive posturing by the Chinese, who have used the same tactics against India by propping up Pakistan.
India, too, is set to offer naval facilities for training and capacity-building to Vietnam. The Commander-in-Chief of the Vietnam People’s Navy, Vice-Admi-ral and deputy minister Nguyen Van Hien, is scheduled to visit New Delhi, Mumbai and Visakhapat-nam during his visit starting Monday to witness Indian naval capabilities.
“India could also offer its experience in ship-building to Vietnam, which currently has a small Navy,” said a government source.
A Vietnamese naval officer said the "routine" drills were being held about 40km (25 miles) off central Quang Nam province, outside the disputed area.However, Hanoi sought to play down the drill Monday in an apparent attempt to avoid antagonizing its larger neighbor unnecessarily.
Chinese state media as usual denounced the exercises as a military show of force to defy Beijing. But forgot to mention the reason for this. This is in response to the unprovoked attack on a Vietnamese survey ship. Read More About Chinese Strong Arm Tactics
The South China Sea includes important shipping routes and may contain rich oil and gas deposits. The exercises around the island of Hon Ong, around 25 miles off the coast of central Vietnam, come after a series of clashes between Chinese and Vietnamese vessels over oil exploration in the area and threaten to further ratchet up tensions.
The maneuvers also follow Vietnam's announcement over the weekend that it would welcome foreign involvement to resolve rival claims to the potentially resource-rich waters—an apparent reference, analysts say, to the U.S., which last year infuriated Beijing by saying that resolving disputes in the hotly contested South China Sea is in America's national interest.
A prominent U.S. senator Monday said the U.S. needs to signal its dissatisfaction with China's use of force in the area and push more forcefully for multilateral negotiations to resolve sovereignty issues there. Democrat Sen. Jim Webb, who heads the Senate subcommittee on U.S. policy towards East Asia, said Vietnam and other countries in the region were watching whether "we are going to back up those words with substantive action," the Associated Press reported.
A successful first barrage of naval artillery, lasting about four hours, took place about 40 kilometers (25 miles) off Quang Nam province in central Vietnam, said a naval officer in Danang city who asked not to be named.
He declined to reveal how many ships had been mobilized, but said no missiles were fired. A similar night drill would start at 7 p.m. and last about five hours, the officer added.
Demonstrations are not tolerated by the communist regime of Vietnam yet they have allowed it in Hanoi for the second weekend in a row, calling for China to get out of Vietnam's territorial waters.Authorities appear to be allowing protests related to the South China Sea dispute, as a clear indication of its resolve to fight.
China is engaged in maritime border disputes with several countries.
The Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have rival claims in the area. The US has also expressed concern about China's rising naval ambitions.
Vietnam has confirmed that it is buying 6 kilo class attack submarines from Russia to protect its maritime resources better and chase away any encroacher.Lt. Gen. Nguyen Chi Vinh, Deputy Minister of Defense, also confirmed the Kilo submarine deal and added that Vietnam was also buying "Su-30 fighters and surface-to-air missiles."
The incidence which has raised the hackles of Vietnamese armed forced happened in May when one of its offshore oil and gas exploration ship was attacked and harassed by an increasing expansionist Chinese navy.
The Vietnamese ship, the Binh Minh 02, detected the Chinese patrol boats approaching on radar at about 5 a.m on Thursday, the official Vietnam News Agency reported. About an hour later, the three Chinese boats intentionally ran through the area where the Vietnamese ship was working, snapping cables the ship was using, then left the scene after about three hours, it said.
China’s Foreign Ministry blamed Vietnam for the incident “China’s stance on the South China Sea is clear and consistent. We oppose oil and gas operations conducted by Vietnam, which have undermined China’s interests and jurisdictional rights in the South China Sea and violated the consensus both countries have reached on the issue,” ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said. “What relevant Chinese departments did was completely normal marine law-enforcement and surveillance activities in China’s jurisdictional sea area,” she said in a statement posted on the ministry’s website (www.mfa.gov.cn). “China has been committed to safeguarding peace and stability in the South China Sea. We are willing to work together with relevant parties to seek a solution to related disputes,” Jiang added.
Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry protested against the incident by passing a diplomatic note to representatives of the Chinese embassy in Hanoi on Thursday.The incident caused outrage in Vietnam, resulting in public protests at the Chinese embassy and hacker attacks on Chinese government websites.
China's military has been expanding its capabilities and influence in the South China Sea with a new submarine base on Hainan Island, and preparations are underway to begin sea trials of its first aircraft carrier.
China and Vietnam have been engaged in conflict or small skirmishes in the South China Sea since the 1970s. In 1974 China in a blatant violation of international laws took the Paracel Islands by military force from South Vietnam, but Vietnam refuses to recognize Chine occupation and claims that territory as its own. China has found new way of harassing and humiliating Vietnam by arresting its fishermen for no reason. Chinese navy infiltrate into the Vietnamese water and pick up fishermen just to show its might.
In 1988 China and Vietnam fought over the Johnson South Reef in the South China Sea. China sank two Vietnamese naval vessels and opened fired on Vietnamese troops occupying the reef. More than 30 unarmed sailors and 3 transport ship was sunk by the imperialistic Chinese Navy
The South China Sea covers an area of more than 648,000 sq miles (1.7 million sq km), containing more than 200 mostly uninhabitable small islands, rocks and reefs.
China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan all claim territories in the sea, which covers an important shipping route and is thought to hold untapped oil and gas reserves.The incident this week took place in an area called Block 148 about 120 km (80 miles) off the south-central coast of Vietnam from the beach town of Nha Trang, the Vietnamese news agency said.
By the way these kind of opportunities do not present itself everyday and India should take full advantage of this conflict. It can use some of the Vietnamese Islands as its military base. That should rile the dragon up nicely
Two Indian naval ships INS Delhi and INS Kirch are on a visit to Ho Chi Minh City from May 10 – 13. Indian Rear Admiral HCS Bisht, Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Fleet of Indian Navy has also arrived in the Vietnamese city.
On May 11, the Indian delegation met with the Deputy Chairman of the HCM City People’s Committee, Le Minh Tri. The visiting crew also called on the Command of the Military Zone no 7 and the Vietnam People’s Navy. They are expected to see Cu Chi underground tunnels and other historical and cultural places in the city.
The guests are also scheduled to have friendly interactions and games with students from the Vietnam’s Navy Technical School.
An Indian flotilla comprising of INS Delhi, INS Jyoti, INS Ranvijay and two R-class destroyers are visiting Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, South Korea, Russia and Singapore. As reported yesterday, INS Ranvijay is on a port call at the Sepanggar Bay Naval Base in Malaysia. The ships participated in Malabar series of war games along with US. Japan pulled out of the war games in view of the devastating earthquake-tsunami and nuclear radiation leaks.
At Hanoi our Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee gave assurance that India will continue to assist Vietnam in the modernization of its armed forces, particularly the Navy and Air Force.
While discussing similar issues with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, in Hanoi, Pranab Da said “India is also prepared to strengthen intelligence cooperation with Vietnam.” He had a meeting with the Vietnamese Prime Minister on may 4th. Pranab dada was confident that strategic partnership between the two countries is strong because it is based on implicit mutual trust, a convergence of interests including in the field of defence and security and similar approaches on global and regional issues. “As two dynamic and fast growing economies of Asia, our effort is to add greater content, through concrete programmes and projects, to our strategic partnership, he added.
Back in 1994, both the countries signed a Protocol on Defence cooperation. Over the years Indo-Vietnamese Defence cooperation has grown steadily through visits by military delegations, ship visits from India and training of Vietnamese Defence personnel in India. Both countries have held a series of India Vietnam Security Dialogue.
On Dec18,2007 Gen Phung Quang Thanh in his remarks (to the Defence Minister , AK Antony) put forward various proposals including training of Vietnamese Defence Personnel, enhancing the exchanges of delegations, expanding training cooperation and cooperation between the defence industries of the two countries. He also suggested increase in the frequency of goodwill visits by naval ships, application of information technology in defence and e- technology and technical support to Vietnamese navy. The Vietnamese Defence Minister expressed gratitude to India for providing training to armed forces officers in various areas and said ‘they are bringing back valuable knowledge and skills to their work areas’. So far, a total of 49 officers have attended various Army and Navy Courses and 64 officers have attended English language courses.
We must remember that these are the same Vietnamese who took on the mighty Americans and chased them out. Though the Americans tried every dirty tactics in the book yet their campaign ended in disaster and ignominy. Before that they had defeated the French and the Chinese found it impossible to control them. even after their victory over the Americans the Vietnamese knew that one day they will have to do business with the Americans thus they tried their best to move from the past but never giving up their honour or dignity. Surely India can learn a few lessons from this small country in the field of resolve and will to fight no matter what the cost.
