Bangalore: India is ready to supply various types of weapon systems to Indian Ocean Region countries, Defence Minster Rajnath Singh said on Thursday, while stressing that the countries need to ensure peace in the region through maritime cooperation .
In a reference to to the prevailing tension in the South China Sea because of China’s expansionist strategy, he said that the negative impact of conflicting claims in some maritime areas highlighted the need to ensure peace in the IOR region.
However, the Defence Minister didn’t name China while referring to the current situation in the South China Sea during his address at the Indian Ocean Region Defence Ministers’ Conclave here.
A total of 27 out of the 28 Indian Ocean countries participated in the conclave and shared their views on enhancing regional cooperation.
Rajnath Singh underlined that the Indian Ocean is a shared asset and a lifeline to international trade and transport due to its control of major sea-lanes carrying half of the world’s container ships, one-third of the world’s bulk cargo traffic and two-thirds of the world’s oil shipments.
He said SAGAR – Security and Growth for All in the Region – is the theme of Indian Ocean Policy as outlined by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015, adding that in line with this, the IOR conclave should focus on security, commerce, connectivity, fight against terrorism and inter-cultural exchanges.
The Minister identified areas such as deepening economic and security cooperation in the littoral, enhancing capacities to safeguard land and maritime territories, working towards sustainable regional development, the Blue Economy, including sustainable and regulated fishing, and promoting collective action to deal with non-traditional threats like natural disasters, piracy, terrorism, illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing as inter-related elements of SAGAR.
He said that the IOR faces a number of challenges such as piracy, smuggling of drugs and people and arms, humanitarian and disaster relief, and Search and Rescue (SAR) which can be met through maritime cooperation.
