Rajnath Singh: India does not believe in dealing with security issues in old paternalistic or neo-colonial paradigms

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh today stated that India does not believe in dealing with security issues in the old paternalistic or the neo-colonial paradigms.

Speaking at the Defence Ministers’ Conclave in Bengaluru, the Minister said India considers all nations as equal partners.

He stressed that richer, militarily or technologically more advanced nations do not have the right to dictate their solutions to the nations in need of support.

The Defence Minister highlighted that India offers an enhanced defence partnership to the friendly foreign nations. India offers a partnership that is accommodative of the national priorities and capacities.

He said India wants to build, create and develop with other partner countries. 

He added that it is India's endeavour to transcend the hierarchical relationship of buyer and seller, to a co­ development and co-production model.

He said collective security has become sine-qua­ non for development and prosperity.

He stressed that issues like terrorism, illegal arms trade, drugs smuggling, and human trafficking pose significant security threats to the whole world. 

He stressed on the need for real time engagements between nations considering the increasing pace of changes being witnessed.

He said the pace of change of circumstances in the past was very slow and mostly had a local impact. He highlighted that today, any major change in the domain of economy, security, health and climate has global reverberations.

The Defence Minister emphasised that when the peace and security of any region is threatened, the entire world feels its impact in multiple ways.

He drove home the point that in an interconnected and networked world, rapid transmission of shocks and disturbances around the world makes it impossible to insulate ones one country from the issues of other countries.

The Defence Minister said India has always stood for a rules-based international order. He further stated that India has never been a closed country, and has been always open to new ideas and thoughts from all over the world.

He said co-mingling and contest of various thoughts in India has made the nation a global ideation centre.

He said Aero India provides an opportunity for Aviation and defence industry, including the aerospace industry, to showcase its products, technologies and capabilities to all the national decision makers.