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On the sidelines of DefExpo, Sri Lankan Defence Minister Premitha Bandara Tennakoon met Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan and appreciated the continued support of India for the island countries' armed forces.
Tennakoon also praised India's impressive progress in establishing a strong defence industrial base. Apart fromTennakoon, several other countries' Defence Ministers were also present in DefExpo. Earlier, on october 18, the Sri Lankan Defence Minister had met Chief of Naval Staff Admiral R Hari Kumar. "Enriching consultations on collaborative Maritime Security & avenues to strengthen bilateral defence cooperation," Indian Navy spokesperson tweeted. Yesterday, Rajnath Singh addressed HQIDS-FICCI seminar on 'Atmanirbhar Bharat and Make in India' in Gandhinagar, where he said that the country "must have technological and production capability" if the "reliability of supplies" of defence items has to be maintained. "If we have to maintain sustainability and reliability of supplies of our defence items, then we must have technological and production capability within the country so that whenever we face a long-drawn conflict, our capabilities remain intact," he added. "Our armed forces should provide more support to the domestic industry. It's a matter of happiness that our forces have given full support in the self-reliance of the defence sector," he added. Noting that the Indian armed forces are passing through an important phase of transformation, the Minister said that the country's preparedness to deal with the challenges of the changing geo-political scenario has strengthened. "Our preparedness to deal with a rapidly changing geo-political scenario, and challenges arising out of it, especially neighbourhood threat, has strengthened significantly in recent past," he said. "Not only the assurance of procurement of defence products but also the objective of developing world-class technologies is very clear in front of us. For this, for the first time, the government has allocated 25 per cent of the Defence R&D budget for industry, start-ups and academia," Singh added. He said the government fully understands the role of MSMEs and start-ups in the defence sector. "Hence, to create more opportunities for MSMEs and start-ups, the scope of the Defence Innovation Start-Up Challenges and Technology Development Fund has been further expanded," he said. Rajnath Singh also inspected arms and ammunition displayed at DefExpo- 2022. (ANI)
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