India gifted the indigenously-built in-service missile corvette INS Kirpan to Vietnam to enhance that country’s naval capabilities.
Key points
- Defence Minister Rajnath Singh announced this on June 19 after bilateral talks with his Vietnamese counterpart General Phan Van Gang.
- INS Kirpan is a Khukri class missile corvette displacing 1,350 tonnes and was commissioned into the Navy on January 12, 1991.
- It has a displacement of close to 1,400 tonnes, a length of 91 metres, a beam of 11 metres, and is capable of speed in excess of 25 knots.
- In June 2022, India and Vietnam signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on mutual logistics support. The two countries have also signed the “Joint Vision Statement on India-Vietnam defence partnership towards 2030.
- Vietnam 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, and discussions are under way to identify the equipment.
