GURGAON: Noting that India faces multiple security challenges as it is in a difficult neighborhood, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said the country’s deterrent capabilities have increased and is in a position to be a net provider of security in the Indian Ocean Region.
At the same time, he underlined the need for reorientation of the strategic thinking of country’s higher defense organization to meet the challenges and opportunities in the fast changing world “witnessing change on a scale and speed rarely seen before.”
“India faces the entire spectrum of security challenges. This is inevitable as we live in a difficult neighborhood, which holds the full range of conventional, strategic and non-traditional challenges,” the Prime Minister said.
He was addressing a gathering after laying the foundation stone of the Indian National Defense University in Binola village near here.
Singh said in the last nine years, “Our deterrence capabilities have also matured and have been given concrete shape”.
“We have also sought to assume our responsibility for stability in the Indian Ocean Region. We are well positioned, therefore, to become a net provider of security in our immediate region and beyond,” he said.
The Prime Minister said the country was “better equipped today to deal with non-conventional threats, especially in the cyber and space domains. We are implementing a national architecture for cyber security and have taken steps to create an office of a national cyber security coordinator.”
The Prime Minister said as our dependence on the cyber and outer space domains grows, “new sets of challenges will emerge, which can also assume military dimensions”.
“The nature of conflict and competition is changing at the same time when national boundaries are being blurred by deepening global integration. Therefore, while defending and securing our homeland, we also have to be prepared to preserve India’s expanding international assets,” Singh said.
Observing that world was witnessing a change on a scale and speed rarely seen before, Singh said this was more pronounced in Asia which was seeing multiple security challenges due to the “intersection of fragile states, internal conflicts, proliferation of arms and terror groups”.
The Prime Minister said notwithstanding the multiple security challenges, the country must be conscious of the strategic opportunities.
“India’s security has never been stronger than it is today and our international relationships have never been more conducive to our national development efforts. Our engagement in our immediate neighborhood has increased. We have deepened political, economic and strategic relations in the Asia- Pacific, Indian Ocean and West Asian regions,” he said.
Singh said India’s relations with all major powers have become stronger and more productive and “we are also particularly participating in key global and regional fora, ranging from the Group of 20 to the East Asia Summit and the ASEAN groupings.”
The Prime Minister said the defense university was meant to ensure that the country, government and armed forces benefit from the best military advice that was available.
“It is also meant to provide our defense professionals with a deep understanding of the interplay between all attributes of national power,” the Prime Minister said.
“Those who pass through the portals of this university will also need to map the contours of future conflicts and understand the relationship between defense and finance, between external and internal security and between defense and diplomacy,” Singh said.
Defense Minister A K Antony told the gathering that the laying of foundation stone of INDU shows the priority that the government attaches to the national security.
“INDU will promote and nurture intellectual strength to our security concerns and cater to our needs of defense technology and management. It will be of international level and will be ready by 2018-19,” he said.
INDU is the first university of its kind in the country which will focus on military studies only and will be headed by a three-star officer of the rank of Army Commander or equivalent.
Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, Minister of State for Defense Jitendra Singh and the three Services chiefs were present on the occasion. -PTI
Thank You For Your Vote!
Sorry You have Already Voted!
