Modi, US defence secy talk security in Singapore
SINGAPORE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday met US defence secretary Jim Mattis in Singapore and discussed security related issues, days after the Pentagon renamed its Pacific Command as Indo-pacific Command in a largely symbolic move to signal India’s importance to the US military.
Earlier in the day, Modi and Singapore’s former premier Goh Chok Tong unveiled a plaque to pay tribute at the site where a part of Mahatma Gandhi’s ashes were immersed in 1948 at the waterfront Clifford pier.
Modi, who is here on the last leg of his three-nation tour, held a closed-door meeting with Mattis during which both sides discussed all security related issues of mutual and global interests, sources said.
National Security Adviser Ajit Doval was also present in the meeting that lasted for nearly an hour. The meeting was held on the sidelines of the annual Shangri-la Dialogue which was addressed by the PM on Friday.
“The focus of conversation was on the region in the context of PM’S keynote address at the #SLD18 yesterday evening,” ministry of external affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted.
In his keynote address, Modi had said an “Asia of rivalry” will hold the region back while an “Asia of cooperation” will shape the current century. Asia and the world will have a better future when India and China work together with trust and confidence while being sensitive to each other’s interests, he said.
Mattis also addressed the dialogue where he stressed upon freedom for all and “reaffirmation for rule based order”.
The meeting between the two leaders assumes significance as in his address Mattis has stressed upon both countries working together and with other nations for ensuring peace and security in the Indo-pacific region.
“It is only appropriate that waterways remain open for all nations,” Mattis said
We, the journalists, are looking really bad. The larger public, the janata, is being persuaded to think we are all on the take. The politician is having a mighty laugh. The Righteous Commentariat is hawking the canard that we aren’t just crooks, but criminally bigoted too. And we are nursing a guilty conscience, forgetting the first lesson of our trade: Checking our facts.
Sting videos always look bloody awful. Even a normal conversation on hidden camera can make you look foolish, especially if it catches you doing something silly. But this camera brings pictures that make some people look much worse than if they were merely caught picking their noses, or scratching in odd places. Some of these are the most powerful people in Indian media. None, I repeat none, of them is a journalist.
So that is the first important fact. There is no need for journalists to wallow in shame or commit the moral equivalent of jauhar or mass-sati. Surely, where the Chinese walls between editorial and revenue are breached, a fightback is called for.
The second important fact: Barring one mega owner, and salesmen in some organisations, none has either offered to sell editorial for money or to sell time/space for a communallyloaded campaign for cash, if routed through their top industrialist friends. Never mind that the tycoons named here, running the largest and most valued listed public companies, would be furious at having been named as likely conduits for converting black money into white. You might wish to ask “Kumar”, Adani or Ambani if they would do that. Having seen the picture from both sides, I wouldn’t