Vietnamese children at a ceremony to welcome President Ram Nath Kovind in Hanoi on Tuesday

NEW DELHI: India offered a model for regional cooperation that “opens not one but many roads”, President Ram Nath Kovind told the Vietnam National Assembly on Tuesday .

A thinly veiled reference to China’s now embattled Belt and Road Initiative, the President’s comment came days after US Vice-President Mike Pence described the BRI as a “constricting belt” and a “one-way road”. With Vietnam hosting the first maritime security dialogue with India in 2019, the government wants to push its Indo-Pacific policy and the “rules based order”, particularly in the South China Sea.

In his remarks to the National Assembly, Kovind said, “India has consistently supported Asean’s unity and centrality and Asean-led mechanisms for regional security and economic architecture to promote peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region. India offers a cooperation model that does not require its friends to make choices but rather expands choices and expands opportunities for all, that opens not one but many roads.”

The President’s visit comes in the backdrop of the East Asia Summit and APEC summit where the increasingly divergent world views of the US and China threaten to spill over into a dangerous geopolitical rivalry. “Vietnam and India share a vision for the Indo-Pacific region, of which the South China Sea is a critical component. We share a vision of a rules-based order that respects sovereignty and territorial integrity, ensures freedom of navigation and overflight, as well as un-impeded commerce,” Kovind said.

For countries like Vietnam, this choice is proving to be very difficult, particularly as the Vietnamese political system is virtually split down the middle vis a vis their closeness to China or the US. India, being a natural competitor to China, attracts the same conflicting response from Vietnam.

The new Vietnamese ambassador in India told journalists here last week that Vietnam would “not support” any military alliance in the region or military exercises as part of the alliance. This was seen as the Vietnamese response to the Quad which also met last week.

However, in Hanoi, where Kovind is currently visiting, the Vietnamese leadership was much more welcoming of defence cooperation with India, including sharing India’s approach to maritime issues particularly in the South China Sea. With Vietnam taking over as chair of Asean in 2020.

