NEW DELHI, June 29: India is beefing up its anti-missile defence system with a slew of imports, prompted primarily by a threat from Pakistan, the country’s top-ranking bureaucrat in the defence ministry said on Saturday. Outgoing Defence Secretary Yogendra Narain said: “There is a missile threat to this country.” He also outlined a “sharp and visible step up” in the purchase of defence equipment like hand-held night vision devices, counter-improvised explosive device equipment and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Narain, who demits office on Sunday, was quoted by the Press Trust of India as saying there has been a 33 per cent increase in expenditure for defence purchases and hoped that the spending would be kept up at the same momentum “to make India into a super regional power”. Within a short span, he said, the country would induct force-multipliers like French-made killer Scorpene submarines, Russian- made aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov and Israel- made Phalcon early warning aircraft. Conceding that India needed an anti-missile system, Narain did not spell out whether New Delhi was negotiating with Israel, the US or Russia for purchase or co-production of such a system. The PTI also quoted an Indian foreign ministry spokesperson as lauding the G-8 leaders’ call to Pakistan to ensure that “infiltrators” did not use its soil to carry out “terrorism”.
“We agreed that Pakistan must put a permanent stop to terrorist activity originating from territory under its control,” spokesperson Nirupama Rao was quoted as saying. “It rightly focuses on the need for Pakistan to put a conclusive and permanent end to terrorism and all terrorism-related activity,” she said.
