New Delhi: Describing Pakistan as a ‘global puzzle’, Defence Minister, Arun Jaitley, said ‘India is living in a troubled neighbourhood and security has become a complex issue’.
He told a conference of top commanders of the armed forces here that the process of military acquisitions, which had slowed down due to some controversies, will be speeded up with at least one meeting per month of the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), a high level body that decides on procurements for the armed forces.
There is a need for capacity building and India needs to have a credible deterrence in all arms of the armed forces, Jaitley said. Observing that India lives in a ‘troubled neighbourhood’, he described Pakistan as a "global puzzle", according to defence ministry sources. He complimented the Army and the BSF for appropriate response to the recent ceasefire violations by Pakistan.
Talking about two-decades of cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan, he said it has been effectively thwarted by the armed forces, the sources said. At the same time, he said that since the Narendra Modi government took over in May, it has endeavoured to have good relations with all its neighbours.
Underlining that security of the country is paramount, he promised to speed up the defence acquisition process. There were ‘some controversies’ in the acquisition process and hence it had slowed down, he said, adding DAC "is going to meet at least once every month" as the government wanted to speed up. He asked the armed forces to expedite the technical trials.
The Defence Minister mentioned the government's decision to increase FDI limit in defence sector to 49 per cent from 26 per cent and said it will go a long way in cutting down import. The Minister lauded the role of armed forces in facing with external, internal challenges and even natural calamities like the Jammu and Kashmir floods and Cyclone Hudhud.
