Four warships of the Indian Navy and long range anti-submarine warfare aircraft P-8l are participating in the SIMBEX. Reuters file photo

New Delhi, May 18

Navies of India and Singapore on Thursday began a seven-day-long mega maritime exercise in the South China Sea which has been witnessing a growing Chinese assertiveness.

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Four warships of the Indian Navy and long range anti-submarine warfare aircraft P-8l are participating in the SIMBEX (Singapore-India Maritime Bilateral Exercise), which is aimed at increasing interoperability between the two navies.

A diverse range of operational activities at sea have been planned during the course of the exercise.

“The thrust of exercises at sea this year would be on Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW), integrated operations with surface, air and sub-surface forces, air defence and surface encounter exercises,” Navy spokesperson Capt DK Sharma said.

A number of warships of Singapore Navy are participating in the exercise along with maritime patrol aircraft Fokker F50 and F-16 aircraft.

Held since 1994, it is the 24^th edition of the annual exercise between the two countries. — PTI

File photo for representation only.

Beijing, May 17

Sino-Indian relations are likely to remain complicated as India’s “longing” for great power status will be a challenge for China, a state-run daily said on Wednesday.Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India may seek to establish closer ties with the US, Japan, Australia and other countries so that it can play a more important role than earlier, an article in the Global Times said.“The Modi administration will not greatly adjust the current diplomatic strategy, which could be generalised as going beyond the regional vision and pursuing great power status; striking a diplomatic balance among big powers but giving top priority to the US; creating peripheral security while putting its focus mainly on China and Pakistan; developing more partners and prioritising Japan and Australia; and promoting Indian products,” it said.By joining international organisations such as the China-led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) India wants to gain more international influence, it said.“However, in the process of becoming a leading force in the international security arena, finding out how to better handle relations with Pakistan, China and other neighbouring countries will be a major challenge for India.”      The daily said India’s foreign policy is a continuation of Modi and his team’s “political ambition and self- confidence”, while also showing India’s “longing for great power status”.“This is both an opportunity and a challenge for China in its relations with India, which have experienced a series of setbacks and disturbances recently.”“For a long period of time in the future, working out how to get along well with an ambitious but sensitive neighbour, as well as finding out how to efficiently cooperate with this friend and reduce mutual contradictions and disputes will be worthy of consideration for China,” the paper said. — PTI

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 11The Army tactic of “cordon and search,” which was discontinued in the early 2000s, will now be a permanent feature in south Kashmir as a part of the ongoing “re-arranging” of the counter-insurgency grid to tackle the growing unrest in the Valley.The cordon and search operations, which are referred to as ‘CASO’ in military parlance, were resumed after almost 15 years near Shopian on May 4.These will be permanent feature in Kulgam, Tral, Pulwama, Budgam and Shopian — all in south Kashmir, sources said while informing about the decision taken after due consultation with the state government and the Central government. “The top Army brass has been told that the CASO will have to continue and the Army will have to get physical control of the area,” the sources said.Another reason was the emergence of videos showing terrorists moving around openly. The counter-insurgency grid which is basically the military plan for deployment of forces in specific sectors is being re-done and the return of the CASO is a part of it.The CASO was the operational strategy that was used in the 1990s, confirmed a senior functionary.The CASO had been discontinued as it caused undue hardship to local population, alienating them from the forces, therefore they were stopped, a senior security official said.Instead, the forces had moved to intelligence-backed operations.The Army has also told the government that Pakistan-based terror groups like the Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Hizbul Mujahideen were operating together and sharing resources — a phenomena that was common in the early 2000s.

Army officer’s killing raises fear of more violence

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif during a meeting in Lahore on December 25, 2015. — AFP/PIB file photo

Islamabad, May 10

If India shows interest, Pakistan will look into the possibility of a meeting between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the SCO summit next month, Pakistan’s top diplomat Sartaj Aziz said on Wednesday.”It is too early to say. We will see if they (India) expressed interest (in the meeting),” Pakistan Prime Minister’s Foreign Affairs Adviser Aziz told reporters here.He did not reject the idea when asked about the chances of a meeting between the two prime ministers on the sidelines of the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Kazakhstan.Aziz said Pakistan would look into it if India showed interest in an interaction with the Pakistani leader.Currently, there are strains in India-Pakistan ties over a range of issues, including cross-border terror attacks in India and the sentencing of Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav to death for alleged spying.India and Pakistan are expected to be admitted into the six-member SCO during its next summit to be held on June 8-9 at Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.China-led SCO, which is headquartered in Beijing, focuses mostly on security related issues like counter-terrorism cooperation in Central Asia. It comprises China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as full members. Afghanistan, Belarus, India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan have observer status.During its 2015 summit in Ufa, Russia, the SCO formally adopted a resolution which started the procedures to admit India and Pakistan into the grouping.With India and Pakistan’s membership, the bloc will include countries encompassing over 40 per cent of the world’s population. — PTI 

Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 8

Civilian officers of the Military Engineer Service (MES) airing their grievances by writing directly to the Defence Minister and other senior functionaries have invited the Ministry of Defence’s ire.Pointing out that a large number of letters and representation from the Indian Defence Service of Engineers (IDSE) and Quantity Surveying and Contract (QS&C) cadre officers addressed to the MoD and the Defence Secretary have been received, an order issued by the ministry has stated that such actions are contrary to conduct rules.Directing the Engineer-in-Chief at Army headquarters to issue appropriate advisory to all officers and staff of the IDSE and QS&C cadres to follow the channel for correspondence regarding service conditions, the MoD warns that in case officers digress it would be viewed seriously and disciplinary action would be initiated against them.IDSE and QS&C cadres are engineers who are recruited through the UPSC and posted at supervisory posts at various levels, including chief engineer of zones. In a move that reflected a deep rift between the military and civilian cadres of the MES, a large number of civilian officers had recently written to the Defence Minister, Defence Secretary, Army Chief and other officers expressing “loss of confidence” in the MES administration that is headed by a Lieutenant General.

84-year-old donates savings to armed forces

Bhavnagar: An 84-year-old retired SBI clerk has tugged heartstrings by donating his entire life savings amounting to Rs 1 crore to the National Defence Fund. Hailing from Gujarat’s Bhavnagar, Janardan Bhatt and his wife saw reports of martyred Army jawans and decided to take the step. ANI

Shyam Sood

Rajouri, May 8

The Pakistan army resorted to heavy mortar shelling and automatic weapon firing on Indian forward posts along the Line of Control (LoC) today.The Pakistan army targeted posts in Kalsian, Jhanger, Sair and Makri areas and got a befitting reply from the Indian side. On Sunday, Pakistan resorted to firing in the Balakot sector.After information of movement of some suspects in the Kalsian area, the Indian Army and police launched a joint search operation today.“The operation was launched after getting information about suspicious movement but it ended in the evening without any result,” said Harbnsh Singh, SDM.Since the killing and mutilation of two soldiers by Pakistan’s Border Action Team (BAT) in Poonch district, the situation on the LoC is grim and both armies are on a high alert.For the last three days, low intensity skirmishes have been taking place on the LoC in Nowshera, Balakot and Mendher sectors but no injury or damage has been reported so far on this side of the LoC.

Anti-militancy ops halt cross-LoC bus service

Samaan Lateef

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, May 8

Amid heightened tension between India and Pakistan, the ‘Karvan-e-Aman’ or cross-Line of Control (LoC) peace bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad was halted today after the Army launched an anti-insurgency operation in the border area of north Kashmir’s Uri sub-district.Officials said the Army informed the local administration that a “counter-insurgency search operation” was underway in the Kaman post area of Uri and movement of the bus was not safe.“Today morning, the Army had given us an indication orally that the cross-LoC bus can’t pass due to an ongoing search operation in the forest area of the Kaman post here,” sub-district magistrate, Uri, Sagar Doifode told The Tribune.The passengers were taken to a government guest house in Uri, where they were kept waiting till 2 pm for a nod to move forward.“We didn’t receive a green light from the Army until 2 pm to allow the passengers to move forward. Also, we could not keep the passengers stranded for the whole day. So, we called the bus service off,” Doifode said.At least 39 passengers, including 23 residents of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), were moving from this side of Kashmir to Muzaffarabad. They have been sent back to Srinagar and will be travelling to PoK next Monday. The Srinagar-bound bus which was supposed to reach there this afternoon was also not allowed to cross the Aman Setu, the peace bridge, where an exchange of passengers takes place in Uri.Army sources said militants had tried to sneak into the Indian side of the LoC on Sunday evening, resulting in exchange of fire in the Gawalta area in Uri.

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New Delhi: Army chief General Bipin Rawat on Thursday said that the defence sector is not getting its due share even as the Indian economy is developing, adding that India should learn from China on this count.

Calling it an “economy-security deficit”, he said: “There is a general thinking that expenditure on defence is a burden on our economy… we need to appreciate that defence and economy go hand in hand.”

“A strong military will help in ensuring stability along the border, within the nation and hinterland. That will help develop the economy,” General Rawat said while speaking at a book release event in New Delhi.

The Army chief said a strong force is required to ensure the safety of people and those who are investing.

“This is a deficit that remains. While we are developing our economy, the military somehow is not getting its due share,” he said.

“We need to learn from China. While they were developing the economy, development of military is a part.”

A parliamentary panel, in its report tabled in Parliament in this year’s Budget session, had said that budgetary provisioning for the Army is critically short and is likely to adversely affect the modernisation and operational preparedness of the force.

The Army chief said that India needs to form alliances so that it can encircle its western and northern neighbours.

Calling partition a historic deficit, he said: “India had reach up to the Middle East, but with the creation of Pakistan there has been a break.

“We have to now look at new alliances — whether it is through Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan. It not only helps us in creating two-front dilemma for our western neighbours, but also encirclement of our northern neighbour from the west.”

“While we talk of our own encirclement, we have to look at counter-encirclement of some of our adversaries. Developing alliances to overcome this deficit is important,” General Rawat said.

He also said that India should form alliances that can get it into the United Nations Security Council.

“Other part of security deficit is creating alliances so that we find our rightful place in the Security Council. Time has come for India to have a say in all that happens in the United Nations,” he said

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