From Bodh Gaya to BrahMos: What To Lam’s India Visit Reveals About Asia’s New Power Game

Joydeep Chakraborty
6 days ago
6 min read

As global politics grows volatile, middle powers are taking a distinctive stand. Countries like India and Vietnam are actively shaping the Indo-Pacific through flexible partnerships, economic diversification, technological cooperation, and maritime coordination. President To Lam’s visit reflected the gradual emergence of a new Asian reality where influence belongs to nations capable of balancing history, geography, economics, and strategic autonomy with elegance.

From the sacred quietness of Bodh Gaya to the power corridors of New Delhi, Vietnamese President To Lam’s recent visit to India traced the remarkable journey of an ancient civilizational bond evolving into a modern geopolitical partnership. It began centuries ago with Buddhist monks, anti-colonial solidarity, and shared historical memories. Today, it is expanding into one of Asia’s most strategically important middle-power partnerships.

The three-day State Visit of President To Lam and General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam elevated the India-Vietnam ties to an “Enhanced Comprehensive Strategic Partnership,” opening a wider framework for cooperation in defence, maritime security, critical minerals, digital payments, trade, and connectivity.

Pages of history stand testament to how India and Vietnam endured shared struggles. Today, geopolitics is drawing them together to navigate a shared future. The symbolism behind the visit’s opening carried profound significance.

President To Lam chose to begin his India tour at the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya, one of Buddhism’s holiest sites. He also visited the Vietnamese Monastery there. His itinerary suggested that even in an age of hard power competition, soft civilizational links still carry geopolitical weight.

*Vitenamese President To Lam with Indian Counterpart Droupadi Murmu*

When President To Lam later arrived in New Delhi, President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed him at Rashtrapati Bhavan with full ceremonial honours. Behind the grandeur of diplomatic protocol, however, stood a rapidly changing Indo-Pacific order drawing India and Vietnam closer than ever before.

The South China Sea Is No Longer Distant

One of the most fundamental drivers behind President To Lam’s India visit lay in the contested waters of the South China Sea. Nearly one-third of global maritime trade passes through these waters every year, making the region one of the world’s most strategically sensitive maritime corridors. Overlapping territorial disputes and intensifying great-power rivalry have steadily transformed the South China Sea into a major geopolitical flashpoint. Geographically distant from India, the region is nevertheless no longer strategically remote.

Vietnam sits at the centre of this maritime dais. For years, Hanoi resisted China’s expanding influence and military assertiveness in disputed waters. India, meanwhile, steadily emerged as a maritime power advocating freedom of navigation and adherence to international law. Both countries repeatedly emphasised support for a “rules-based maritime order,” diplomatic language widely interpreted as support for the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and resistance to coercive maritime claims.

In 2014, tensions exploded when China deployed the Haiyang Shiyou-981 oil rig in disputed waters near the Paracel Islands. Violent protests erupted across Vietnam. The crisis became one of the sharpest confrontations between Beijing and Hanoi in recent decades and deeply reinforced Vietnam’s determination to diversify strategic partnerships, including with India. That strategic logic continues to shape Hanoi’s diplomacy today.

Vietnam’s “Bamboo Diplomacy” Sails On India’s MAHASAGAR Vision

President To Lam’s India visit came shortly after important engagements with China. The sequencing was far from accidental, reflecting Vietnam’s long-practised “bamboo diplomacy,” which is a foreign policy approach that carefully balances relations with competing powers while avoiding excessive dependence on any single country. Hanoi seeks partnerships that expand strategic room without dragging the country into rigid alliance structures, and India fits that requirement almost perfectly.

Prime Minister Modi described Vietnam as a central pillar of India’s Act East Policy and Vision MAHASAGAR. The relationship offers India a trusted gateway into ASEAN and strengthens its presence in Southeast Asia’s burgeoning maritime architecture. When Vietnam aligns with India, it enjoys strategic diversification without coercive pressure. India brings defence cooperation, technology, digital infrastructure, and market access while allowing Hanoi to preserve its carefully balanced diplomacy.

To Lam’s visit confirmed that the Indo-Pacific’s future will not be shaped by superpowers alone, but also by the strategic choices of assertive middle powers.

Defence Cooperation Has Become the Core Pillar

The soul of the India-Vietnam partnership increasingly lies in defence and maritime cooperation. Over the past decade, both countries have quietly yet steadily deepened naval coordination, strategic engagement, and defence industrial cooperation. During the visit, the two sides reviewed the progress of India’s defence Lines of Credit extended to Vietnam, reaffirming the growing centrality of security cooperation in bilateral ties.

The foundations of this partnership were laid several years ago. During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2016 visit to Vietnam, India announced a USD 500 million defence Line of Credit for Hanoi, and it marked one of India’s largest defence assistance packages to Southeast Asia and signalled a decisive expansion of India’s strategic ambitions in the Indo-Pacific.

The current phase of cooperation appears even more ambitious as the two countries discussed stronger naval collaboration, logistics support, submarine rescue mechanisms, and defence industry partnerships. Indian and Vietnamese security institutions are expanding coordination.

*National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and President To Lam*

President To Lam held discussions with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, while Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security moved towards closer engagement with India’s National Security Council Secretariat. Yet, the possible BrahMos missile deal remained the heartbeat of the strategic engagement.

Although officials did not publicly confirm the discussions, reports suggesting a potential BrahMos export to Vietnam have attracted enormous strategic attention. A BrahMos agreement would represent one of India’s most strategically consequential defence exports in Southeast Asia and significantly strengthen Vietnam’s deterrence capabilities in the South China Sea while positioning India as a serious defence exporter in the Indo-Pacific.

Beyond Trade Figures Lies Economic Strategy

Economic cooperation formed another anchor of the visit, though its significance extends beyond headline trade numbers. Vietnam is currently India’s largest trading partner in ASEAN, while India ranks among Vietnam’s top ten trading partners globally. Bilateral trade has nearly doubled over the past decade, touching around USD 16 billion. Both countries now aim to push the figure towards USD 25 billion by 2030.

Yet the real story lies beneath those numbers.

As global supply chains undergo structural shifts, countries are increasingly seeking to reduce their dependence on concentrated manufacturing ecosystems. The “China Plus One” strategy has accelerated this transition manifold, with Vietnam emerging as one of Asia’s fastest-growing manufacturing hubs.

India sees Vietnam not merely as a trading partner but as an increasingly important node in the emerging architecture of resilient supply chains.

The agreements signed during the visit on critical minerals and rare earths reveal a more nuanced calculation.

China currently dominates global rare earth processing, prompting countries across the world to seek alternative supply chains and reduce strategic vulnerabilities. Both India and Vietnam possess significant rare earth reserves, making cooperation in this sector strategically important far beyond the realm of bilateral commerce.

Prime Minister Modi also announced expanded agricultural market access, including Indian grapes and pomegranates entering Vietnamese markets and Vietnamese durian and pomelo reaching Indian consumers. Such announcements reflect the widening social and commercial depth of the relationship.

The Rise of Digital Geopolitics

One of the most forward-looking dimensions of President To Lam’s visit involved digital cooperation, as India and Vietnam expanded discussions around linking India’s Unified Payments Interface with Vietnamese payment systems through an MoU between the Reserve Bank of India and the State Bank of Vietnam. This extends far beyond a mere fintech arrangement and reflects the rise of “digital geopolitics” as a new frontier of international influence.

India considers its digital public infrastructure as an instrument of diplomacy and economic integration across the Global South. UPI, Aadhaar-linked systems, and digital payment architecture have become part of India’s external engagement strategy. Vietnam’s rapidly growing digital economy makes it a natural partner in this domain.

In 2024, India and Vietnam had already expanded fintech discussions around payment connectivity and digital systems integration. The latest agreements deepen that trajectory.

Civilizational Diplomacy Still Matters

This visit stood out not only for its geopolitical undercurrents but also for its powerful cultural dimension. Buddhist diplomacy has emerged as an increasingly important pillar of India’s engagement with Southeast Asia, particularly with countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka.

Prime Minister Modi highlighted that Buddhist relics sent from India to Vietnam last year attracted more than 15 million visitors. That figure reveals the emotional depth of cultural connectivity between the two civilisations.

India is also assisting in the restoration of ancient Cham civilisation temples at My Son Sanctuary and Nhan Towers while collaborating on the digitisation of Cham manuscripts. These initiatives preserve cultural heritage, but they also carry strategic significance by strengthening India’s civilizational footprint across Southeast Asia.

*President To Lam’s Mahabodhi Temple Visit*

President To Lam’s visit to Bodh Gaya suggested that strategic partnerships become far more durable when they rest not only on military calculations and economic interests, but also on a shared civilizational consciousness.

A Defining Middle-Power Alignment in Asia

Unlike many partnerships shaped purely by immediate interests, India and Vietnam share a rare combination of genuine convergence, political trust, and historical memory. Both countries support a multipolar world order and seek strategic autonomy while carefully resisting excessive dependence on major powers.