India's coastline vulnerable but security measures in place: Sureesh Mehta

Mumbai, Aug 20 (ANI): After Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh's talked about a possible terror threat to the country, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Sureesh Mehta has said that the coastline was vulnerable, but adequate security measures were in place.

Talking to reporters here on the sidelines of flagging off a solo expedition of circumnavigating the globe by Commander Dilip Donde in Indian Navy's yacht 'Mhadei', Mehta said, "We have a 7,500 kilometres coastline, so no doubt it will be vulnerable. But that vulnerable should be used in the right sense, that there is possibility of threat coming from here and therefore we have to take measures to ensure that that threat is taken care of.

Mehta also clarified his earlier statement that India had neither the capability nor the intention to match China, force for force.

"The context in which I have said that is that yes they have a much larger navy, larger does not mean better. There are ways to tackle this issue. We do not go counting; we do not say if you have ten ships, I will have ten ships. But may be I have better ships which are able to do that job much better than what somebody else can do. So I have said we need to get smarter, we need to get better outputs form lesser number of platforms rather than working up to increase the strength in such number that they match number for number," said Mehta.

He further said that building of ports in Sri Lanka and Pakistan by China would create 'dependency' for those countries.

"I do believe that there will be some lien on them at times that is may be required, so dependency's do get created by these kinds of measures. But it is their policy it is in their interest to do it, so they are doing it," he added. (ANI)