http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/ahead-of-modi-visit-us-backs-india-s-unsc-bid/137116.html
Ahead of Modi visit,
US backs India’s UNSC bid
Washington also
supports Delhi’s entry into MTCR
Washington,
September 23
With the United
States reaffirming its support for India’s inclusion as a permanent member of
the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and the successful conduct of the
maiden strategic and commercial dialogue between the two nations, the stage is
set for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s third summit with President Barack Obama
on September 28.
The US also
supported India's entry into the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) that
would enable it to share sensitive missile technologies like armed drone with
New Delhi.
Notwithstanding
apprehensions appearing in certain quarters following recent developments at
the UN headquarters in New York, the US said it supported India as a permanent
member of the UNSC.
“The US side reaffirmed its
support for a reformed UN Security Council with India as a permanent member,”
said the joint statement issued after the conclusion of the first US-India
Strategic and Commercial Dialogue. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and
US Secretary of State John Kerry co-chaired the successful dialogue. — Agencies
Research budget
inadequate, says DRDO chief
New Delhi, September
23
The Director General
of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Dr S Christopher,
today said the budget allocation for research and development was inadequate
and compared China’s massive spending on the front.
Speaking at the
inauguration of the 39th Director’s conference of DRDO, he said 5-6 per cent of
the budget for R&D was inadequate, especially when China is spending 20 per
cent on R&D. — TNS
http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/three-strategic-roads-in-ladakh-to-be-built-soon/137132.html
Three strategic
roads in Ladakh to be built soon
Leh, September 23
Three key roads in
Ladakh which give access to security forces to several strategic locations,
including Siachen, will soon be constructed with Home Minister Rajnath Singh
ordering expeditious completion of the work.
The directive was
given after the two-day visit of the Home Minister to Ladakh region where he
had a first-hand experience about the difficult life in inhospitable terrain in
the icy heights of Himalayas along China border.
Singh, who spent two
nights, including one at ITBP border post Dungti, located at an altitude of
13,648 feet above sea level, also ordered construction of infrastructure for
improving mobile telephone network in the region.
The Home Ministry's
project for construction of 27 roads for the movement of troops of the
Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), which guards the Sino-Indian border, has
been very slow as only three roads have been built till last year end.
The roads are to be
constructed along the border in Jammu and Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim
and Uttarakhand.
The plan envisages
construction of 804 km of roads and the project will cost an estimated Rs 1,937
crore. However, just 200 km of the road has been constructed so far.
During the visit,
Singh had to abandon his helicopter and take a road trip to Dungti, some 200 km
from here. It took seven hours for the Home Minister to reach the destination,
which is just 3 km from the Line of Actual Control and situated on the bank of
Indus.
Singh became the
first Union Home Minister to spend a night at a border outpost which has very
basic infrastructure.
The Home Minister
and Director General of ITBP Krishna Chaudhary slept in two available beds
while rest of the entourage had to sleep in sleeping bags in very cool
environment at 5 degrees Celsius. PTI
http://onlykashmir.in/india-to-buy-israeli-drones-to-use-in-kashmir/
India to buy Israeli
drones to use in Kashmir
New Delhi, Sep 23
(Only Kashmir):-India has accelerated plans to buy drones from Israel that can
be armed, defence sources said, allowing the military to carry out strikes
overseas with less risk to personnel. The news comes weeks after long-time
rival Pakistan first reported using a home-made drone in combat when it
attacked militants on its soil, raising the prospect of a new front in the
nuclear-armed neighbours’ standoff over Kashmir that has twice spilled into
war.
The plan to acquire
Israeli Herons was first conceived three years ago, but in January the military
wrote to the government asking for speedy delivery, the sources said, as
Pakistan and China develop their own drone warfare capabilities.
India has already
deployed Israeli unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) along the rugged mountains of
Kashmir for surveillance, as well as on the disputed border with China where
the two armies have faced off against each other.
In September, the
Indian government approved the air force’s request to acquire 10 Heron TP
drones from Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) that can be fitted with weapons
to engage targets on the ground, an air force official with knowledge of the
matter said.
He added that he
expected the agreement to be inked soon. The Indian Defence Ministry declined
to comment.
The plan to buy
Herons in a deal estimated at $400 million would open the option of covert
cross-border strikes.
Currently the two armies
exchange fire across the de facto Kashmir border at times of tension, but do
not cross the Line of Control (LoC) by land or air.
“It’s risky, but armed UAVs can
be used for counter insurgency operations internally as well across the
borders; sneak attacks on terrorist hideouts in mountainous terrain, perhaps,”
said an army officer in the defence planning staff.
http://zeenews.india.com/news/india/army-chief-gen-dalbir-singh-suhag-leaves-on-russia-tour_1801058.html
Army Chief Gen
Dalbir Singh Suhag leaves on Russia tour
New Delhi: Army
Chief Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag on Wednesday left on a four-day visit to Russia
during which enhancement of bilateral military cooperation will be under focus.
"The visit
assumes significance in the light of the special relationship India shares
historically with Russia," a senior Army official said.
During the visit,
Suhag will be interacting with the top military hierarchy of the Russian armed
forces and Defence Ministry.
Among various
defence establishments, the Army Chief will also visit the Mikhailovskaya
Artillery Academy and Western Military District of the Russian Army.
Indian and Russian
armies have a long standing relationship involving training, hardware, exchanges
and conduct of military exercises.
"This visit
will give a fillip to the existing relations," the official said.
http://www.theshillongtimes.com/2015/09/23/india-launched-attack-on-pak-in-1965/
‘India launched attack on Pak in
1965’
New Delhi: Pakistan’s
former president and military ruler Ayub Khan had ‘no intention’ of going to
war with India in 1965, and was taken aback when India ‘launched an attack’,
said his son Gohar Ayub Khan, a retired Pakistani military officer and a
veteran politician.
An aide-de-camp to
his father Ayub Khan, Pakistan’s first military ruler (1958-69), Gohar Ayub
Khan said the Pakistan Army was taken by surprise by the ‘Indian Army’s attack
on the international border’ on September 6, 1965.
“The president, who was also the
supreme commander of the military, had no intention of going to war with India
in 1965. But we certainly won the war,” Gohar Ayub Khan told IANS in an
interview over the phone from Islamabad.
A Sandhurst-trained military
officer, who retired from the army in 1962 to be a part of politics and
rejoined the army in 1971, Gohar Ayub Khan squarely blamed India for the events
leading up to the 1965 war.
India’s position is it was
forced to go to war after Pakistan attacked it. And that India clearly won the
war which started on September 6 and ended on September 23, with both sides
signing a ceasefire agreement.
However, Gohar Ayub Khan said
neither side wanted any more wars.
Though exchange of fire between
India and Pakistan across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir has become a
regular feature, he said, both sides should work on an agreement to maintain
peace on the border.
“I think we should have peace.
We have had enough wars,” he said.
He said that due to tensions in
Jammu and Kashmir and the operation against militants, ‘the situation
escalated’ in 1965 which culminated in ‘India mounting an attack’ on Pakistan.
“The forward positions of the
Pakistan Army were held by the paramilitary forces which the Indian Army was
able to push back. But nowhere else, not in Lahore or Sialkot, could the Indian
Army penetrate or cross the main defence of the Pakistan Army,” said Khan, 78.
He said the morale of the
Pakistan Army ‘during the 1965 war and even before that was so high that if you
asked the ambition of anybody in the Pakistan Army, they would say it was to
hoist the Pakistan flag at the Red Fort in Delhi’.
He dismissed claims that India
won the war.
“On the Indian side, 2,763
soldiers lost their lives and 8,444 were wounded. A total of 200 tanks and 36
aircraft were destroyed, and 1,607 personnel went missing. On the Pakistani
side, 1,200 soldiers were killed and around 2,000 wounded, 132 tanks and 19
aircraft were destroyed,” he said. “I am amazed how India can say they won the
war.”
“Had India not attacked on September
6, there would have been no war,” Khan maintained. (IANS)
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