Commitment to peace as strong as commitment to protecting territory: Modi at DefExpo

The Prime Minister said his government has taken steps to strengthen and improve manufacturing licenses, exports clearances, Foreign Direct Investment and reforming procurement.

india Updated: Apr 12, 2018 15:41 IST
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the 10th edition of India’s Mega Defence Exhibition — DefExpo 2018 at Tiruvidandhai, on the outskirts of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, on Thursday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the 10th edition of India’s Mega Defence Exhibition — DefExpo 2018 at Tiruvidandhai, on the outskirts of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, on Thursday. (PTI Photo)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday India’s commitment to peace is just as strong as its commitment to protecting the country’s territory and asserted that his government is ready to take all necessary measures to equip the armed forces to bolster their strength.

“India has sent one of the largest numbers of UN peacekeepers all over the world. Our commitment to peace is just as strong as our commitment to protecting our people and our territory,” Modi said after formally inaugurating the Defence Expo 2018 in Thiruvidanthai near Chennai.

“For this, we are ready to take all necessary measures to equip our armed forces, including through establishment of a strategically independent defence industrial complex.”

Addressing a gathering of mostly foreign dignitaries and captains of foreign and local military manufacturing companies, Modi said India, the land of Buddha, had always believed in winning hearts and not land. “Thousands of years of history of India shows that we have never desired anyone’s territory. Rather than winning countries through wars, India has believed in winning hearts.

A combat free fall demonstration by MARCOS at DefExpo on Thursday. (ANI/Twitter)

“This is the land from where the light of Buddhism spread to the world. In fact, from the time of Ashoka The Great and even earlier, India has believed in using strength to protect the highest ideals of humanity.”

On the defence front, he said his government has taken steps to strengthen and improve manufacturing licences, exports clearances, Foreign Direct Investment and reforming procurement.

“In all these areas, our regulations, processes and procedures have been made more industry-friendly, more transparent, more predictable, more outcome-oriented,” he added.

Modi said the Defence Procurement Procedure has been revised with many specific provisions for stimulating growth of the domestic defence industry.

“We have also de-notified some items earlier made exclusively by Ordnance Factories, so that the private sector, especially, the MSMEs can enter this space,” he said.