Bengaluru, February 14
India does not believe in giving solutions to countries in need of assistance and holds that nations with superior military powers do not have the right to dictate solutions to others, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Tuesday.
In an address to his counterparts and deputy defence ministers from 27 countries at Aero India-2023 here, Singh said India had always stood for a rules-based global order in which the primordial instinct of “might being right” was replaced by fairness, respect and equality among all sovereign nations.
In a conclave named SPEED (Shared Prosperity through Enhanced Engagements in Defence), Singh also called for united efforts to counter pressing challenges such as terrorism and said collective security had become “sine qua non” for overall development and prosperity of nations.
To counter the security threats, Singh underlined the need for devising new strategies, adding India did not believe in dealing with such security issues in the “old paternalistic or the neo-colonial paradigms”.
He offered partner countries capacity-building through investments, R&D, joint ventures, co-development, co-production and provisioning of defence equipment, besides training and maritime security.
“India considers all nations as equal partners. That is why, we do not believe in imposing external or supra-national solutions to a country’s internal problems,” he said.
Singh said, “There are nations which are richer, militarily or technologically more advanced than others, but it does not give them the right to dictate their solutions to the nations in need of support.”
Rajnath Singh highlighted the need for greater cooperation in an increasingly complex global security scenario. Geopolitical and security realities are shifting at a breakneck speed. He called for real-time collaboration to respond to fast-paced changes.