5, April 2005	Tuesday	25 Safar 1426

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NEW DELHI, April 4: Indian Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee told senior army commanders on Monday that a future conventional war in the region was neither likely nor something to worry about, but said it was a larger nuclear threat as well as a far less tractable terrorist menace they should watch out for. Addressing the Army Commanders’ Conference here, Mr Mukherjee said in this context there was a need to search for a cost-effective combination of technology and manpower to meet the country’s defence requirement.

“The most potent challenges faced by the country is not from conventional wars, but from unconventional threats at both the low end of the spectrum such as religious fundamentalism, terrorism, insurgency, arms smuggling and at the high end from nuclear and missile threats and weapons of mass destruction,” Mr Mukherjee said.

“We have to strengthen our border and airspace management, internal security and maritime environment to face these challenges successfully,” he said.

Referring to India’s neighbours, Mr Mukherjee said New Delhi’s approach towards Pakistan is to pursue a dialogue with the government on all outstanding issues and simultaneously to expand people-to-people contacts and promote confidence-building measures.

He urged the commanders to guard the country against the use of “softer borders” to promote subversion and terrorism.

Mr Mukherjee said Russia continued to be India’s major strategic partner. “While there has been an expansion in defence cooperation with the US, Israel has also emerged as an important technological partner,” he added.

Taking up the army’s reorganisation plans, Mr Mukherjee said as a part of streamlining the command and control for India’s western borders, approval had been given for creation of the new South-Western Command.

The situation in Jammu and Kashmir has shown a perceptible change towards the better, according to the defence minister.

He said the cease-fire along the Line of Control except for a few violations had generally held.

Infiltration figures and casualties have come down. However, he cautioned the security forces to be alert, “as the terrorist infrastructure along the LoC remains still intact.”

For the first time perhaps the defence minister made an open call for manpower reduction in the armed forces expressing concern that large part of defence budget allocation was taken up by manpower expenditure.

Mr Mukherjee said there should be a move for a smaller “tail” in the army, hinting that action should be initiated to prune support elements in the armed forces.