Vietnam-India security relations: extrapolating India’s potential role in the maintenance of balance of power in Aasen

Abstract

The thesis examines why and how Vietnam-India security relations have deepened significantly in reaction to the shifting geopolitical landscape of the Indo-Pacific.

As Vietnam has to date been the ASEAN state that has engaged most deeply with India’s potential to be a regional security partner, the thesis focusses on ascertaining the factors that have led these two countries to develop a deeper security relationship than other states in the region. Following the analysis of the big geopolitical shifts that drive the two partners’ willingness to cooperate more deeply, the progression of bilateral security arrangements is analyzed, both in terms of the diplomatic tier that they are engaging on and the extent of realized cooperation on the ground. The thesis then concludes by evaluating some of the obstacles and limits that affect this bilateral from reaching its full potential for insulating Vietnam against the pressures of polarized big-power competition.