Continued presence of terrorist infrastructure and state support to terrorists in the neighbouring country have tested India’s patience but as a responsible and powerful nation, India had displayed that it was able to disrupt and deter the activities of terrorist groups and their patrons, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday addressed Defence Attachés (DA) and called them to work to increase India’s defence exports.
“We need to be more focused to secure our interests. We have adopted pro-active measures to promote peace and stability in the region as well as to increase defence and security cooperation with the Indian Ocean rim countries so as to create a stable maritime environment,” Mr. Singh said at the third DA conference.
A large country like India cannot restrict its defence cooperation to a few countries. Efforts, he said, should be made to expand it continuously. In this direction, he announced the creation of 10 new Defence Wings so that 10 more DAs could be appointed. “This will further strengthen India's defence diplomacy,” he noted.
The establishment of two defence industrial corridors in Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh is expected to increase defence manufacturing and exports. There was a lot of scope for DAs to work and attract FDI (foreign direct investment) in these corridors. India has also offered several defence Line of Credits (LOC) to friendly countries to allow Indian defence exports and increase their presence in the global market, he stated.
The government recently introduced a scheme to promote defence exports through DAs to their respective countries. Under this scheme, funds have been allocated for export promotion to 34 countries.
