DefMin Promises All Help for Modernisation of Navy, Coast Guard

New Delhi, Jan 16 (UNI) The Government today reiterated its commitment to modernising the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard to guarantee security of national sovereignty and the rapidly increasing volumes of maritime trade.

Defence Minister AK Antony told a seminar here on 'Maritime Trade and Security : Striking the Right Balance' that the Government was aware of the increasing importance of secure waters necessary for galloping exports and imports, especially of energy.

''The Government will do everything possible for the modernisation efforts of the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard'', he said thus providing welcome cheer to Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Sureesh Mehta and Director General of Coast Guard RF Contractor, who were also present at the Seminar organised jointly by the Observer Research Foundation, National Maritime Foundation and the College of Naval Warfare.

Minister Antony also stressed the need to improve the infrastructure at ports and on ships to help improve sea trade and meet the requirements of the country which was fast heading towards becoming one of the top four economies of the world.

''I can surely tell you something is wrong somewhere... Something is lacking somewhere... I had discussions with officials after my visits to various places... I don't know what is wrong and what is not wrong... But something is wrong, and we have to rectify this'', an obviously puzzled Defence Minister said.

Further, deprecating the facilities at some shipping places as ''shameful to the nation'', he said had no doubt that India needed to set up more shipyards and significantly increase the strength of Indian ships ''if we have to meet the challenges of a fast growing economy''.

''Our interests in the maritime sector demand that our marine fleet strength grow in a competitive environment -- just as the Chinese merchant marine fleet has grown. What we need is more shipyards to build and repair ships to optimise trade -- especially energy-related -- through Indian ships'', the Minister said.

Minister Antony also promised to look into the recommendations of a two-day international seminar, organised by ORF, NMF and CNW in Mumbai last week, which had made various recommendations to strike the right balance between the increasing security interests at sea and smoothening of the rapidly increasing trade through the waters around the nation.

He further assured that he would ''do everything possible'' to make the right policies keeping in mind the conflicting interests of security and trade.

Also speaking on the occasion, the Navy chief stressed the need for a Central Maritime Council to control, coordinate and oversee the activities in the maritime sector.

While the skies were well-controlled with coordination of information and data by agencies of each nation, the seas were unfortunately still unsecure despite the looming threats from terrorists, gunrunning, illegal immigration and drug trafficking, Admiral Mehta observed.

He said though the seas were also divided into various zones, there was no coordination between the authorities in these zones. In this regard, he suggested that like each aircraft was identified in the skies, there should be similar measures to identify ships on the seas thus preventing threats from the seas.

UNI