Neighbours adding military muscle at feverish pace: Antony

NEW DELHI - Cautioning that “our neighbours are building their military capabilities at a feverish pace”,

Defence Minister A.K. Antony Wednesday said here that “the need for us to be vigilant and prepared at all times goes without saying and is unquestionable”.

“The prevalent security environment necessitates securing our land, air and sea borders to effectively guard against traditional threats to our land borders, defending our airspace and protection of our maritime energy supply routes,” he said, ahead of former president A.P.J. Kalam delivering the Field Marshal Cariappa Annual Memorial Lecture here.

“Our strategic, geopolitical situation and the compulsions of history pose unique challenges for our country. Some nations are keen to incite threats to our unity and integrity,” the minister said.

“Our neighbours are building their military capabilities at a feverish pace. Thus, to successfully meet such challenges, the need for us is to be vigilant and prepared at all times goes without saying and is unquestionable,” he said.

The defence minister said the government was alive to the urgent need to quicken the pace of modernization of the armed forces.

“We have initiated a number of measures to provide an impetus to defence procurement. The defence ministry is in the process of implementing a new procurement policy, which would be even more effective and quicker than the current DPP-2008,” he said.

Antony said the government believed that the private and public sector can and must coexist in the defence manufacturing space.

“Our government has undertaken several policy initiatives to promote public-private partnerships to put military modernization on the fast track,” he said.

Expressing concern over the increased imports of the country’s defence requirements, the defence minister admitted that India is still far from establishing itself as a major defence equipment manufacturing nation.

“Even with a large industrial infrastructure, we are still importing about 70 percent of our defence requirements,” he said.

“Our efforts to reduce the import content of our defence requirements are not yielding the desired results. Given our economic status, this is not a very desirable state of affairs. If modernization is to be more meaningful, it must go hand-in-hand with indigenization,” Antony added.