India to exceed Rs 50,000 crore defence exports: Defence Secy Rajesh Singh

Speaking at the ANI National Security Summit 2.0 in the national capital, Singh said, RS 50,000 crores will not be a problem.

On the target of Rs 50,000 crore in defence exports by 2029, Singh said the milestone would be comfortably achieved. "50,000 crores will not be a problem." He further added, "We'll certainly exceed that figure by 2030. We've done 38,000 crores last year, which is a 61% jump over the previous year."

He noted that global conflicts have increased demand for conventional defence equipment. "Part of it is simply because of the conflicts around the world, because of which the demand for a lot of conventional munitions, artillery shells, et cetera, has gone up."

Highlighting structural changes in India's defence export ecosystem, he said public sector enterprises are now driving growth. "The boost that we see in our exports last year is largely led by the public sector, as against the previous times when it was largely led by the private sector."

On global demand, Singh said interest in Indian systems is rising, particularly in Asia and Africa. "There is a lot of interest, not so much in the developed countries, but certainly in Asian and African countries for our systems, many of which are battle-tested."

Singh also announced that the government is working on a dedicated financial mechanism to support exports.

"We are working on an exclusive sort of line of credit scheme for the defence sector. We've, again, that is now going to the cabinet. So hopefully, we will have a special scheme to provide LOC for some of these Asian and African countries, which might need some prompting in terms of low-cost funding in order to take orders or give orders to us," he said.

Addressing shifting global alliances, Singh said geopolitical realignments are creating new opportunities for defence partnerships.

He added alliances are fracturing as Europeans feel insecure about the American umbrella, and B2B negotiations are underway for large-scale defence industrial partnerships."

"They've signed a strategic partnership agreement with us quite recently. And a lot of B2B sort of negotiations are ongoing to have defence industrial partnerships at scale between you and us. The Italian defence minister is here today, and he and other European countries are really keen on partnering with India, because they know that while the technology is with them, the production scale and the cheap labour are not available with them, simply because they have an ageing population."

He added, "They hardly have any labour available to take care of their own basic requirements. In fact, they need to import labour. So you will see those partnerships grow, but alliances sort of reshape themselves, I mean, in response to the NATO umbrella sort of looking a little distinct, the Germans and the French are talking to each other about sharing the French umbrella and all of that."

On global defence dynamics, Singh observed that geopolitical realignments are creating new opportunities for partnerships, with countries increasingly focusing on supply chain security and trusted sourcing. He said European nations are keen to collaborate with India, given their technological strengths but limited production capacity due to demographic challenges.

"European countries are really keen on partnering with India, because they know that while the technology is with them, the production scale and the cheap labour are not available with them simply because they have an ageing population. So you will see those partnerships grow, but alliances sort of reshape themselves," he said.

Defence Secretary added, "Alliances will reshape themselves. But I don't think it's a question of people going it alone. But yes, it is a question of people generally rearming, devoting more attention to supply chains and to trusted geographies rather than to supply chains that may be vulnerable during conflicts." (ANI)