Prime Minister of India - Dr. Manmohan Singh

PM's address at the Combined Commanders Conference

EXTRACTS FROM ADDRESS BY PRIME MINISTER

Raksha Mantriji,

I am happy to address the Combined Commanders Conference.

Let me at the outset, pay tribute to the professionalism and dedication of the jawans and officers of our Armed Forces. Your contribution, even in peacetime - of which the rescue and relief operations during recent floods, in many parts of the country, were only the most recent example - is invaluable.

Our strategic footprint covers the region bounded by the Horn of Africa, West Asia, Central Asia, South-East Asia and beyond, to the far reaches of the Indian Ocean. Awareness of this reality should inform and animate our strategic thinking and defence planning.

In addition to the conventional military threats that we are prepared for, there has been a steady growth of newer and non-conventional challenges in recent years. These are incrementally emerging challenges for national security. We have to enlarge our instrumentalities and capacities to respond to these.

The imperative of this many-layered scenario imposes the need to integrate our resources and assets, and rethink our basic concepts. We need to put in place new decision-making formats in the pursuit of a sustainable model of national security, in a highly complex strategic environment, which is responsive to proximate and concrete challenges, as well as to the other more "diffused" threats.

We are not the only ones who need to find new bearings. Recent events have put an enormous strain on the principles of the UN Charter and international law and on the fundamental ethic of consensual multilateralism as the fountainhead of international legitimacy to regulate and constrain the use of force in world affairs.

Balancing the imperatives of global engagement in an increasingly unstable international environment while maintaining autonomy in decision-making is thus an important challenge of our time.

Increasingly, in the years ahead, our economic growth will be related to and be a result of our integration with the global economy. Our strength as a country with significant IT capabilities internationally illustrates this point. This growing linkage will affect the concept of national defence. Greater economic integration will be a basis for greater security, enhanced cooperative efforts and stable relations. Consequently, we may have to revisit some of the traditionally accepted notions of 'self-sufficiency' and 'self-reliance'.

The fast pace of technologies becoming more sophisticated, and their increasing diffusion is a phenomenon with which we have to keep up. It offers us advantages of optimal sourcing in relation to our defence needs. Our objective should be to fashion a dynamic equilibrium between requirements of indigenous production and possibilities of external inputs and acquisitions.

Recent military campaigns have demonstrated the pervasive impact of the "Revolution in Military Affairs". Technology and strategy are mutually interactive. Our military doctrine must have the inherent flexibility to imbibe technological changes and adapt them to our strategic needs. In this process, availability of resources have to act as a reality check.

We accordingly need to pay particular focus on increasing our capacity for anticipation of strategic trends and of specific events vital to our security interests. Too often in the past, we have paid a price on account of shortfalls in this area.

Our first priority should be to devote ourselves to building a structure of cooperative and mutually beneficial relations with our neighbors. This is the basic objective of our policies. ...We have to remain alert about aberrations, strategic ambitions and geo-political motivations in their policies, which can militate against our security and our vital interests.

In the coming years, the importance of safeguarding our coastline, island territories, offshore assets and above all sea lanes of communications will assume even greater importance for our national security.

Our first and preferred resort is diplomacy. We want a neighborhood of peace so that our neighbours and we can focus on the urgent tasks of development. However, our pursuit of peace does not imply that we shall relax our vigil or compromise on our defence. Clarity in these matters is vital.

The exercise of the nuclear option by India helped remove potentially dangerous strategic ambiguities in the region. In fashioning our nuclear doctrine we have been guided by the policy of minimum nuclear deterrence and no-first use, underlined by restraint and responsibility.

The impulse of technological modernization has to come from within our Armed Forces and our defence establishments. This should be in the context of a broader reform process that should incorporate perspective plans for recruitment of the best and the brightest of our youth into our Armed Forces.

When speaking about modernization of the armed forces, it would be laboring a truism to say that the manpower base of our armed forces has to be qualitatively upgraded. The organizational dimensions of our defence need constant review and purposeful reform. Some specific steps have been taken in this direction.

Reforms also involve cognition of the fact that our navy, air force and army can no longer function in compartments with exclusive chains of command and operational plans.

The technological dimensions of our security cannot be divorced from the larger social milieu. Our Armed Forces have traditionally been symbols of professionalism and dedication, embodying the values of honor and national pride. There is a need for improved career prospects and better career management. Our Government has fulfilled its promise of establishing a separate department for ex-servicemen's welfare.

There is need for greater public awareness of the achievements and sacrifices made by our Armed Forces; the latter, sadly, are almost a daily occurrence.

We are for cooperation and dialogue with all our neighbors, including joint or coordinated action on the ground, to ensure that no Indian insurgent group finds willing sanctuary or sustenance and that the supply and transit routes are totally cut off.

The Common Minimum Programme of our Government has made a commitment regarding the modernization of the Armed Forces. Adequate resources have been provided in this year's budget. There is a need for effective perspective planning so that gaps do not appear in the force structures of our Armed Forces.

The Government is determined to put in place measures to reverse the recent trend of under utilization of funds allotted, which in some instances have led to avoidable delays in key equipment reaching our Armed Forces.

As our Defence purchases are large and substantial, we must leverage them to serve the larger political and diplomatic ends. Similarly, the private sector has now emerged as a major player in the high technology area and its strengths must be utilized for creating a synergy between public and private sector in Defence R&D, development, production and even exports.

In closing, through you, I would like to convey my best wishes to the Armed Forces.

Thank You.

Jai Hind.