De-escalation is the way forward: Rajnath ‘US defence firms must tap into Make in India’

NEW DELHI: Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday said that disengagement of rival troops and de-escalation of the border conflict with China in the Ladakh sector was the way forward, and the ongoing talks for peaceful resolution of the standoff would continue even as Indian troops stand firm on the ground.

“It is our ‘whole-of-the-government’ approach to ensure availability of best weapons, equipment and clothing to our troops braving extreme weather and hostile forces to defend our territorial integrity,” Singh said, addressing the army’s top commanders, which ends on Friday.

While disengagement and de-escalation are the way forward, it is essential to read into the extensive infrastructure being created by the Chinese PLA in proximity to LAC and in Tibet, which sends out ominous signals, said Lieutenant General Rakesh Sharma (retd), a military affairs expert and former commander of the Leh-based HQs 14 Corps.

The army’s top brass also assessed the impact of the Russia

Rajnath Singh

Ukraine war on India’s military preparedness as two-thirds of the country’s military equipment is of Russian-origin, officials said.

Singh also announced an upward revision in the risk and hardship allowance for soldiers posted in field areas. “After the Pulwama attack, a CRPF jawan posted in a field area was drawing a risk and hardship allowance of around ₹20,000, compared to ₹10,000 that a soldier posted in the same location was getting. It’s good that parity has been restored now,” said an official. A case to increase the allowance was taken up by the department of defence in 2019 and by the department of military affairs in 2020 before it was approved. The allowance for officers and men will be admissible from February 2019, and the cash outgo for the Centre will be ₹10,000 crore, the officials said.

NEW DELHI: Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday made a fresh pitch to American firms to carry out joint research and development, co-production of systems, and manufacturing and maintenance of military hardware in the country to tap the opportunities under the ‘Make in India, Make for the World’ initiative.

“Of late, some US companies have expanded their local presence in partnership with Indian industry to achieve our aim of ‘Make in India, Make for the World’. We believe this is just a beginning,” Singh said while addressing the members of the American Chamber of Commerce in India.

“With increasing business, we aspire for increased investments by US companies in India. Making full use of the Industrial Security Agreement (ISA), we need to facilitate collaboration and indigenisation of defence technology and boost the participation of US and Indian companies in each other’s defence supply chains,” he said.

The two countries had signed ISA in December 2019 to facilitate the exchange of classified information between their defence industries.

Singh’s pitch for increased US participation in the Indian defence sector came amid New Delhi’s renewed thrust on indigenisation of weapons and systems, cutting down military imports and getting a toehold in foreign defence markets.

His comments also came amid India’s balancing act between Russia and the US following the Ukraine war and Washington’s attempts to wean India away from its dependence on Russian military hardware.

In an interview with HT this month, Singh said India would not allow its relationship with a third country to adversely affect US “core national interests”.