New Delhi: The ability to collectively respond to challenges based on the fundamentals of freedom, inclusivity and openness in the region will define its future, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said at an ASEAN-led forum on Thursday.
“Threats to the rules based order, maritime security, cyber related crimes and terrorism, just to name a few, remain the challenges that we need to address as a forum,” he said.
Singh was speaking at the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus), a platform comprising 10-nation ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and its eight dialogue partners including India.
In the virtual meeting, the defence minister also called for sustained efforts to address the threats of bioterrorism, transnational trafficking and pandemics.
“Our ability, to collectively respond to challenges in the region based on the fundamentals of freedom, inclusivity and openness will define our future,” he said.
The comments came in the backdrop of the over seven-month-long border row between India and China in eastern Ladakh.
In his address, Singh also underlined the need for confronting the challenges emerging out of the coronavirus pandemic.
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I am glad that for the first time, India is talking about bioterrorism in an international forum. There can be no doubt that Covid 19 is a biological war against the world. The virus has been engineered to perpetuate itself, unlike the viruses China has been releasing on the unspspecting world since 2003 in the form of Sars, Mers etc. China may supply such viruses to its client-State Pakistan for use against India and the perceived Islamophobics.