INDIA TO BUILD SATELLITE MONITORING STATION IN VIETNAM

India will set up a satellite tracking and imaging center in Southern Vietnam , which will give give Vietnam access to the pictures from the Indian earth observation satellites that cover the region including China and the South China sea .
The centre has been set up at Ho Chi Minh city in southern Vietnam and will be activated soon and be linked to an existing facility at Biakin , Indonesia .
India has spent a sum of Rs 152 crores for setting up the facility . This can be seen as an important strategic asset for India in the South China Sea region which has been at the centre of tensions between China and particularly Vietnam and Philippines .
This move which could irritate Beijing , will surely deepen the ties between Vietnam and India .
India currently has 11 earth observation satellites in orbit , offering pictures with differnet rsolutions and areas .
Collin Koh a marine security expert at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International studies said , " In military terms this move could be quite significant . It looks like a win-win for both sides , filing significant holes for the Vietnamese and expanding the range for the Indians."
The tracking station will be the first such foreign facility in Vietnam and is in line with the vaarios agreements signed between India and Vietnam .
India has extended a $100 million credit line to Vietnam to buy patrol boats and is training Vietnamese submarines in India while Vietnam has granted oil exploration blocks to India in waters off Vietnam that are disputed with China .