In a veiled reference to Pakistan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the situation in India's immediate neighbourhood has worsened and expressed deep concern over regular Intelligence reports of "imminent" terror attacks in this country.Addressing top commanders of the three services in New Delhi, Dr Manmohan Singh said the recent terrorist attack on Indian Embassy in Kabul this month is also a grim reminder of the forces the country is pitted against. The Prime Minister said that although there has been no major attack in India since the Mumbai terror attack, the 26/11 confirmed the lethal dimensions of terrorism and non traditional threats to the country's security. He said there is a need to be prepared to face onslaughts of terrorism, asymmetric warfare and aggravated militancy and knee-jerk reactions should be avoided. Dr. Singh said, India is a democratic country and an open society therefore sometimes highly vulnerable. He said that in such a scenario there is no room for complacency. While referring to the steps taken by the government to strengthen the intelligence and security machinery, the Prime Minister stressed the need for improvement in the defence mechanism of the country.He said the country's troops should be trained to fight anywhere, anytime and under any condition. He said their ability to deal with non traditional threats must receive greater attention.The Prime Minister said the government is fully committed to modernisation of armed forces and ensuring their military superiority and technological edge. He also said that the modernisation plan should have a long term perspective and should be formulated in an integrated manner involving all the three services. The Prime Minister said that India as a nuclear weapon state wants to see nuclear disarmament which is global non discriminatory and universal in nature. He said India is ready to negotiate a Fissile Material Cut off Treaty which is multilateral, non discriminatory and verifiable.On climate change, he accused the developed nations of making "concerted attempts" to impose new obligations on developing nations like India to limit greenhouse gas emissions, which could impact the country's economic development.Dr Singh was optimistic on the economic front, saying the growth rate was expected to be 6 to 6.5 per cent in the current year.
News On AIR | October 21, 2009 5:59 AM
Situation in India's neighbourhood has worsened: PM