Vietnam is closing in on a $700 million deal to purchase the BrahMos cruise missile, a supersonic antiship missile built by an Indian-Russian joint venture. If completed, the sale would be the second BrahMos export agreement to Southeast Asia, following a deal to sell the system to the Philippine military in 2022.
The sale has been a long time coming. Russian and Indian defense firms formed a JV - BrahMos Aerospace - to develop and market the missile back in 1995, and export sales were part of the plan from the early days, subject to approval from the Indian and Russian governments. As early as 2016, Moscow and New Delhi signed off on export talks with a wide variety of potential customers, including Vietnam, the Philippines, Chile, Egypt and half a dozen more. To meet expected export demand and reap billions of dollars in new sales, the Indian-managed manufacturing arm of the company is investing in a major expansion of production capacity with a new 200-acre factory campus in Uttar Pradesh, which will come online in 2026.
For years, Beijing has quietly expressed reservations about export sales of Brahmos to Vietnam because of long-running maritime boundary conflicts. Though they have close economic and diplomatic ties, China and Vietnam have overlapping claims in the South China Sea, and have clashed many times over the years - notably in 1974, when Chinese forces seized the Paracel Islands from the U.S.-backed government of South Vietnam.
Last year, Deutsche Welle reported that Beijing's concerns were still active, and China was still believed to be pressuring the government of Russia to scuttle any sale of the BrahMos missile system to Vietnam. Despite Russia's increasing dependence on China, these objections appear to have been dismissed: after Russian President Vladimir Putin conducted a high-profile state visit to Hanoi in June, rumors of a Brahmos deal accelerated.
No outcry from Beijing
China has not announced a formal objection to Vietnam acquiring the BrahMos missile system. Both Hanoi and Manila have claims that overlap with China in the Spratly Islands, but China does not publicly protest Vietnam's operations in the area - even though Vietnam is expanding its footprint in Chinese-claimed waters, and much faster than any other regional actor.
When the Philippines acquired the same missile system from India in 2022, China responded with a cautionary note.
"China always believes that defense and security cooperation between countries should not harm the interest of any third party and should not harm regional peace and stability," Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Wu Qian said in April 2024, when the first batch of BrahMos missiles reached the Philippines.
The Chinese foreign ministry had a much different reaction when Manila announced plans to buy the American-made Typhon shore battery system, a missile launch platform that can fire off SM-6 antiaircraft missiles and Tomahawk land-attack/antiship missiles. The latest generation of the Tomahawk (TLAM Block V) has a range of more than 1,000 miles, putting a large swathe of China's mainland southeast in reach; the antiship variant can hit moving targets at sea.
"By bringing in this strategic offensive weapon, the Philippines is enabling a country outside the region to fuel tensions and incite geopolitical confrontation," said Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning in late December. "We urge the Philippines to correct its wrongdoings, pull out the Typhon missile system as publicly pledged, and stop going further down the wrong path."
