Rajnath Singh speaking at the ceremony marking the successful completion of the project to build 12 High Speed Guard Boats for Vietnam Border Guard at Hong Ha Shipyard in Vietnam. (Twitter/@rajnathsingh)Defence Minister Rajnath Singh Thursday handed over 12 high-speed guard boats to Vietnam on his three-day visit to the country. Five of those were built in India, and the rest in a Vietnamese shipyard under India’s $100 million Defence Line of Credit.
The project, Singh said, is a “glowing example” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of “Make in India, Make for the World”. Singh said that the successful completion of the project, despite the challenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic, “is a testimonial to the commitment and professional excellence of the Indian defence manufacturing sector as also of Hong Ha Shipyard” and expressed confidence that it will be a “precursor to many more cooperative defence projects between India and Vietnam in future,” the Defence Ministry said.
The boats were handed over during his visit to the Hong Ha Shipyard in Hai Phong on Thursday. The first five boats were built by Larsen & Toubro Shipyard in India and the remaining seven at the Hong Ha Shipyard.
During his bilateral meeting with his counterpart, the two countries on Wednesday also signed a mutual logistics agreement, and a defence partnership visit document.
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Singh invited Vietnam to “become a part of India’s defence industrial transformation through enhanced cooperation” and stressed that the “objective is to build a domestic industry in order to make India a defence manufacturing hub which not only caters to the domestic needs, but also fulfils international requirements.”
Singh had also called on Vietnam President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on Wednesday.
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