More India is strong, more calm things will be: Former US Defence Secy

Former US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said on Friday that Indian defence forces need good technology as "more India is strong, the more calm things are going to get in this world."

Mattis said this while speaking at the Panel Discussion On "The Old, the New, and the Unconventional: Assessing Contemporary Conflicts" at the 8th Edition of the Raisina Dialogue 2023 on Friday.

"The human factors remain dominant even as new technology comes in. The Indian Army needs good technology because the more India is strong and speaks for itself, the more calm things are going to get in this world. We want that sort of strength, but we don't need it in the hand of a creature straight out of Dostoyevsky who will act on his impulses of hatred," Mattis said

Regarding the fear of the usage of nuclear power in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, he said that all NATO could do was remind Putin that NATO is a nuclear-armed alliance. Its message was that Russia should not even think about it.

"I must point out, here in India, Prime Minister Modi's firm statement about no use of nuclear weapons. I think that India has a connection to Russia that may have made that message strong and effective. We are thankful to your Prime Minister for it," he said while hinting at India's growing global influence under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Quoting a saying from history he said, "Nations with allies thrive, nations without allies wither."

"We are watching Russia wither before our very eyes. The Western nations can continue to provide this aid so long as the will of the people because we are democracies. Our governments follow the will of the people. So long as that holds, we can continue to do this. It was the human factors that threw the Russians under a tenacious leader who is reminding us that leadership matters," he added.

Especially when Prime Minister Modi pointed out, this is not an era of war, but when war intrudes, you've to deal with it.

Recalling his service days in NATO, he pointed out that earlier Russia had never considered NATO a threat.

"Back when I was a NATO Supreme Allied Commander, I had Russian officers on my staff. Russian officers walked freely through the NATO headquarters in the 1990s and 2000s until 2014. They went to the cafeteria. We sat down next to them. They'd wander into our offices. Why did we do that? Because democratic nations are willing to be transparent in an effort to deter hostilities, to create understanding. The Russian army knew that NATO was no threat," he recalled.

"They (Russians) have moved their troops off the NATO lines and they're down attacking in Ukraine. this proved that they know that there was never a threat from NATO," he said.

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