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Pranab favours fewer troops

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Our Political Bureau New Delhi
Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee here today said the "most potent threats" to the country were not from conventional wars but from terrorism, insurgency and nuclear and missile threats.
 
Mukherjee also became the first defence minister to openly seek downsizing of the armed forces on account of the large chunk of the defence budget that went into servicing salaries and pensions.
 
Speaking at the army commanders' conference, a conclave of the seniormost army officers in charge of various commands all over the country, Mukherjee asked the armed forces to prepare for better border, airspace and maritime management.
 
Mukherjee said there should be a move for a smaller "tail" in the army, meaning that action should be initiated to prune support elements in the armed forces.
 
The army commanders meet is traditionally hosted by the Chief of Army Staff, to update himself and the civilian leadership with the security challenges facing the country.
 
While asserting that India was moving towards solution of all outstanding issues with both its neighbours""Pakistan and China""by promoting confidence-building measures, he cautioned that there was a need to guard against the use of softer borders to promote subversion and terrorism.
 
Elaborating on the unconventional threats, the minister said at the low end such threats were coming from terrorism, insurgency, religious fundamentalism, arms smuggling and at the higher end of the spectrum from nuclear and missiles threats and weapons of mass destruction.
 
While saying that situation in Jammu and Kashmir had shown a perceptible change towards the better with the cease-fire along the Line of Control (LoC) holding, except for few violations, Mukherjee said security forces needed to be alert as the terrorist infrastructure along the LoC was intact.
 
The four-day conference is expected to take stock of the situation on both the Sino-Indian and Indo-Pak borders ahead of summit-level talks between New Delhi and Beijing and discussions with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.
 
Referring to upcoming parleys, he said India's approach towards Pakistan was to pursue talks on all outstanding issues and, simultaneously, expand people-to-people contacts and promote confidence-building measures.
 
On China, Mukherjee, sidestepping a question on the visit of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, said periodic discussion were being held on bilateral issues.The minister, touching on developments in neighbouring Nepal, described the situation there as a "cause of worry."
 
Turning back to modernisation process in the armed forces, including induction of hi-tech weapons and surveillance systems, he said while expansion of defence cooperation with the US was on the card, Russia would continue to be the country's major strategic partner.
 
He also said Israel had emerged as an important technological partner in defence.
 
Mukherjee told the armed forces that there should be inter-services coordination in planning induction of weapons systems and called on them to draw up joint plans.
 
He said weapon systems acquired for any service should be compatible with that of other services for effective inter-operability.

 
 

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First Published: Apr 05 2005 | 12:00 AM IST

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