India signs BrahMos missile deal with Vietnam, moves closer to pact with Indonesia

India’s Defense Minister Rajesh Kumar Singh confirmed on Saturday that a deal to supply BrahMos cruise missiles to Vietnam has been officially concluded, while a parallel defense contract with Indonesia has reached its final stage.

Singh shared these updates while attending the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore and directly responded to a query regarding potential international clients for the advanced weapons platform.

“My understanding is that with both Indonesia and Vietnam, the agreement is in the final stages, that in fact, as far as Vietnam is concerned, I understand that it has already been signed, probably not publicly announced, but it has already been signed,” Singh said.

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The Philippines, which has secured a purchase agreement worth around USD 375 million in 2022, is proud to be the first international customer for India. BrahMos missile technology.

Separately, Indonesian authorities announced in March that they had finalized a preliminary framework with Delhi to purchase supersonic missile infrastructure.

Additionally, media speculation that surfaced earlier this month suggested that Hanoi was on the verge of completing the acquisition of BrahMos from India. However, Singh’s remarks on Saturday serve as the definitive public confirmation of the completed transaction through government channels.

Despite the breakthrough, the exact financial valuations for both the Vietnamese and Indonesian military packages remain confidential.

Addressing the broader dynamics of the movement of sophisticated military hardware, Singh noted that sovereign states typically reserve higher-level weapons and platforms for nations they consider to be trusted strategic allies.

He stressed that New Delhi maintains a deep-rooted commitment to ASEAN partners, stating: “and we treat all of you as ‘friendly foreign countries’ with whom we can share advanced defense technologies.”

“Obviously, you’re sharing technology with people you trust,” he said.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) comprises 11 sovereign states – Brunei, Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, East Timor and Vietnam.

A number of ASEAN member states, notably the Philippines and Vietnam, maintain disputed maritime borders with Beijing in the South China Sea – a vital global shipping channel. Consequently, India Brahmos sales to regional actors have gained international attention as Delhi continues to strengthen its defense diplomacy in Southeast Asia.

Singh informed participants at the security forum that India is ready to work with regional and global allies to build enduring supply networks, reliable security alliances, protected maritime domains and shared innovation frameworks.

“Today, resilience has become one of the defining strategic imperatives of our time,” Singh said.

Highlighting current macroeconomic and geopolitical frictions—such as conflicts across Europe and the Middle East, vulnerability of shipping lanes, fragile supply chains, disruptive technologies, and intensifying rivalries among great powers—Singh noted that these pressures are fundamentally reshaping global defense dynamics.

For New Delhi, achieving systemic resilience goes beyond domestic self-sufficiency and includes cultivating reliable alliances, decentralized production networks, research ecosystems and protected logistics pipelines that support regional and international balance, he explained.

The defense minister further outlined that India had undertaken a major overhaul of its military production, research pipelines and export frameworks over the previous ten years. The administration has unlocked the defense market for strong private sector involvement, encouraged aerospace startups and small firms, maximized domestic engineering and expanded integration with international defense companies, he said.

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India is simultaneously upgrading its domestic military capabilities while transforming itself into a reliable regional center for defense production and maintenance, Singh noted.

He pointed out that state-owned enterprises currently control about 72 percent of India’s total defense production, with private corporations making up the rest. In particular, India’s three national defense operations are among the world’s top 100 arms manufacturers.

The domestic defense ecosystem has developed high expertise in the production of missile arrays, tactical fighter aircraft and heavy armored vehicles, while targeted development is currently underway to fill technology gaps in land, air and naval propulsion systems, he concluded.