Union Minister for Defence Rajnath Singh said here on Saturday that modernisation of the country’s armed forces was the government’s priority. Addressing the gathering at the Diamond Jubilee function of the Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), Mr Singh said that requirement of the armed forces would be met indigenously. He said defence equipment would be imported only when it can’t be manufactured within the country.
The country would reach a respectable position in defence exports by 2025 and organisations like BDL should play a key role in achieving this goal, he further said. The Minister stated that the defence sector should play a vital role in making the country a five-trillion economy with Foreign Direct investment (FDI) in the sector and offset investment in manufacturing. Reiterating that the country’s defence policy was for maintaining regional and global peace,he further stated the defence sector earlier used to depend on import of defence equipment adding that indigenisation had gone up due to hard work by agencies like BDL.
Declaring zero tolerance towards terrorism, the Defence Minister asserted that the union government implements a ”zero tolerance policy towards terrorism”.
”India has made the world understand that terrorism is terrorism for everyone. We have told the world that nothing short of “zero tolerance” on terrorism is acceptable”, Mr Singh added. (UNI)
