Kolkata, July 15 :India is increasing its military strength not only for itself but also for its friends, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Friday while launching a potent stealth frigate Dunagiri for the Indian Navy here.
The Minister praised Bangladesh for the progress it has made after leaving behind religious fanaticism and also launched a veiled attack on Pakistan and asked it to learn from Dhaka.
“The way Bangladesh is developing and making a mark in the region, it is clear that this nation will be able to touch new heights of success in the times to come. India will stand by Bangladesh. If India is increasing its power, it is increasing it not only for itself but also for its friends. I am confident that this ship will prove to be a huge asset for us in this direction,” he said.
“Today if Bangladesh is moving fast on the path of progress. As a neighbour, India is very happy about it. It is progressing rapidly by adopting the path of modernisation, moderation, secularism, women development… leaving behind religious fanaticism, bigotry and parochialism.”
Launching a veiled attack on Pakistan, the Minister said: “One of our neighbors, which is badly battling religious fanaticism, bigotry and parochialism, is itself troubled by poverty, unemployment and terrorism, and it sometimes troubles India too. It needs to learn a lot from Bangladesh and introspect.”
Rajnath Singh said that India has maintained warm and strong relations with all its neighbours, be it Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, the Maldives or Bangladesh.
He said that despite being affected by Covid and Ukrainian conflict, India helped Sri Lanka amid its economic crisis.
“You are all aware of the difficult circumstances Sri Lanka is going through. Although India has also been affected due to Covid and Ukrainian conflict, we are trying to help our friend Sri Lanka as much as possible. Similarly, we also helped Nepal and the Maldives by sending medicines and other essential items to them during the Covid crisis.”
Talking about constantly changing economic, trade and political relations between countries, he said the events in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Ukraine directly or indirectly affect all the countries.
“In such a situation, rule-based freedom of navigation and safety of sea-lanes has become more important than ever before for stability, economic progress and development of the world,” he said.
The Minister said that the security challenges continue to grow in the Indian Ocean region and in the Indo-Pacific.
“We continue to see incidents of piracy, armed robbery, drug smuggling, human trafficking, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and some kind of natural disaster in the region.”
He said the Indian Navy will always have to be response ready in the Indian Ocean Region and strive to be the first responder during any contingency, be it domestic or international.
India has to be ready to help friends and partners in the region when they are in need, he added.
“Recently, drug smuggling has been reported in Spain using autonomous underwater drones. Such never-seen-before methods of unlawful activities are emerging. In such a situation, our Navy, Coast Guard and surveillance agencies will have to be more attentive.
“For this, we have to increase our infrastructure and assets so as to stay ahead of the curve in dealing with these challenges,” he added.
Rajnath Singh said that urgent need of the day is to re-orient training in accordance with the new conditions.
Similarly, the challenges of dark and gray shipping also lie before the country.
The Minister said that the launch of such a capable warship reflects the growing indigenous design strength of Indian Navy and the high technical capability of Indian shipyards, ancillary industries and MSMEs.
Dunagiri is the reincarnation of the erstwhile Dunagiri, the Leander Class ASW Frigate, which in her 33 years of service from May 5, 1977 to October 20, 2010, witnessed various challenging operations and multinational exercises.
The first two ships of P17A Project were launched in 2019 and 2020. The third ship (Udaygiri) was launched at MDL earlier this year on May 17.
The launch of the fourth ship within such a short span is a testimony to the impetus provided towards self-reliant shipbuilding with a focused approach, the Indian Navy said.
P17A ships have been designed in-house by Indian Navy’s Directorate of Naval Design (DND), which has successfully spear-headed design of numerous class of indigenous warships in the past.
