GURGAON, May 23: Noting that India faces multiple security challenges as it is in a difficult neighbourhood, 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 defence organisation 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 neighbourhood, 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 Defence 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.”
“It is also meant to provide our defence 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 defence and finance, between external and internal security and between defence and diplomacy,” Singh said.
Defence 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 defence 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 Defence Jitendra Singh and the three Services chiefs were present on the occasion. (PTI)
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