Antony tells Army Commanders, situation in the neighbourhood volatile

NEW DELHI - The Defence Minister, A.K. Antony said here today that the situation in India’s neighbourhood continued to be volatile, and will have to be vigilant.

Addressing Army Commanders’ conference this morning, he said though violence has shown signs of abating in Kashmir due to vigil by the Army, ” as long as the terror infrastructure across the border continues to flourish, we cannot afford to drop our guard.”

He said the Government remained committed to modernisation and indigenisation of the Army and has introduced changes in the Defence Procurement Procedure to increase private participation.

He expressed confidence that the changes in procurement procedures will help in realising the full potential of Public Private Partnership and leverage the advantages in the fields of R and D and manufacturing,

Antony also underlined the need for probity and transparency in defence deals.

“I wish to strongly reiterate that we must adopt ‘Zero Tolerance’ towards corruption in letter and spirit. Even the slightest hint of corruption will erode the lofty image of our Armed Forces that the people of our nation have become used to,” said Antony.

The inaugural session of the Army Commanders’ Conference was attended among others by the Chief of Army Staff, General VK Singh and the Defence Secretary, Pradeep Kumar.

The five-day conference will review the security situation, emerging challenges and strategies. Issues pertaining to operational logistics to include infrastructure development and modernization will also be discussed.

Keeping pace with the technology transformation and advancement, the conference will also focus on training and its effectiveness based on state-of-the-art technology for meeting the future challenges as also attaining a high state of combat readiness. (ANI)