NSA offers aid for regional growth
PANAJI:INDIA wants to leverage its advantages, such as size and the infrastructure it has put in place, to help countries in the Indian Ocean region improve their own economies and boost security, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval said on Friday.
“The technological and infrastructural facilities that India has been able to build up, we would like to throw open and make it available for the best use of the countries of the region,” Doval said at the second Goa Maritime Conclave for the Indian Ocean Region countries hosted by the Indian Navy.
Doval pointed out that India had provided navigational warnings and hydrographic surveys for neighbouring countries.
“In our ‘neighbourhood first’ policy, it is our commitment to cooperate with all of you in fighting terror, organised crime, drug trafficking and narcotics and arms smuggling,” he said.
The NSA said the plan was only to cooperate and not to form an alliance. “I would like to underline that we are not part of any alliance. Our cooperation is not directed against any country. Our cooperation is truly intended and focused on bringing about a change that will only add towards the prosperity of each country and region,” Doval said.
The maritime conclave is being hosted by Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Karambir Singh and attended by the naval chiefs of Indian Ocean littoral countries such as the Maldives, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Indonesia, Singapore, Seychelles, Mauritius and Myanmar, among others.
Admiral Karambir Singh also addressed the event and listed the problems facing the Indian Ocean countries and the challenges the navies confronted.
“Climate change, rising sea levels, natural calamities pose clear and present dangers. Maritime terror, drug smuggling IUU (illegal unreported unregulated) fishing, poaching, trafficking, etc, have increasingly occupied navies across the region,” Singh said.