In the backdrop of Osama bin Laden’s killing in Abbottabad in Pakistan by US elite forces, Defence Minister A K Antony on Wednesday reviewed the overall security situation in the country and the neighbourhood with top officials and three service chiefs.
The review meeting in New Delhi was attended by National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon, Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar and three service chiefs — General V K Singh, Air Chief Marshal P V Naik and Admiral Nirmal Verma.
“During the 45-minute long meeting, the Defense Minister was briefed on all aspects of the effect of the ongoing security turmoil in the Af-Pak region,” a senior Ministry official said.
The meeting, officials suggested, also took stock of the recent assessment of an Indian security think-tank that China could take over Pakistan-occupied Kashmir by 2020 and Beijing’s infrastructure build-up on the Sino-Indian border.
India may go in for modernizing the special forces of Army (Para-SF), Navy (Marcos) and IAF (Garuds) with specialized equipment to undertake covert missions deep behind enemy lines and hit high-value targets with precision but there is a desperate need to bring all of them together under a tri-Service Special Forces Command for better command and control purposes.
Antony had on Tuesday reviewed India’s coastal security arrangements and its beefing up in the aftermath of the 26/11 Mumbai terror strike, in which the maritime security agencies of the country gave him a low-down on the apparatus put in place over the last two years, defence ministry officials said here.
The coastal security review meeting on Tuesday was attended by Navy Chief Admiral Nirmal Verma, Director General (DG) of Indian Coast Guards (ICG) Vice Admiral Anil Chopra, the Defense Secretary and Secretary (Defense Production), Ministry officials said.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, on Tuesday met the probationers of the 2009 batch of the Indian Foreign Service. The Prime Minister observed that in an increasingly inter-depending and uncertain world, the Indian Foreign Service had an important role to play in steering the country towards the path of socio-economic development.
The Prime Minister highlighted some of the contemporary issues requiring special focus. These included issues of international terrorism, national security, which requires particular attention to relations with India’s neighbours and extended neighbourhood (South East Asia, Gulf and West Asia, Central Asia, Africa) and the importance of maintaining productive relations with the world’s major powers.
