Last six years provide blueprint for India's approach towards national security over the next decade: Rajnath

New Delhi [India], November 5 : Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday said the last six years provided a blueprint for India's approach towards national security over the next decade.
"Let me try and outline four broad principles that are likely to guide our quest for national security in the future. The first is the ability to secure India's territorial integrity and sovereignty from external threats and internal challenges. Second, the ability to create secure and stable conditions that can facilitate India's economic growth, thereby, creating the resources for nation-building and to meet individual aspirations.
"Third, we remain steadfast to protect our interests beyond the borders in areas where our people reside and our security interests converge. And finally, we also believe that in a globalised and interconnected world, a country's security interests are interlinked by shared and secure commons," Singh said, while virtually addressing the National Defence College's diamond jubilee event.
Asserting that India is a peace-loving country, Singh said that the most fundamental lesson that the roller coaster of the rise and fall of nations taught us was that peace cannot necessarily be achieved by a desire for peace but by the ability to deter war.
About the border tension with China, he said, "Recently, India has been facing other challenges. We believe that differences should not become disputes. We attach importance to the peaceful resolution of differences through dialogue."
He added with the exception of Pakistan, given its agenda of fuelling terrorism, India has improved its relations with all neighbours. "We have invested heavily to help and support our friends to forge a relationship of mutual-respect and mutual-interest. Our interests to secure trade routes, shipping lines, fishing rights and communication networks also require the ability to contribute to the global effort, to maintain open and free oceans... India has fostered close relationships and partnerships with like-minded friends in the neighbouring region and beyond," Singh said.
"As India grows, there is a simultaneous movement of people beyond our shores and the growth of our interests worldwide. This entails that we would be able to safeguard Indian citizens who now work across the globe," Singh said.
Giving examples, he said India's strategic partnership with the US is stronger than ever before. "The India-Australia virtual summit in June 2020 has provided a fillip to our already strong comprehensive strategic partnership. We share common concerns and values with Australia. India also has strong, traditional and deep-rooted relations with Russia. Our two countries have weathered many a challenge in the past through our close understanding and appreciation of each other's concerns and interests. India has also forged a very special partnership with reliable friends like France and Israel. We value their support and will continue to build upon it," he added.
Singh went on to say that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken a special interest in reaching out to partner countries in West, Southeast and East Asia, adding that the scope and quality of relations with Saudi Arabia, UAE and Oman in the West and with Indonesia, Vietnam and South Korea in the East have also been enhanced.