Indian armed forces building partnerships in vital Indo-Pacific region: PM

TIL Desk/National/Singapore/ Describing the Indo-Pacific as a ‘natural region’, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that India’s armed forces, especially the Navy, are building and expanding partnerships in the strategically vital region for peace and security as well as humanitarian assistance.

10 countries of South East Asia connect the two great oceans — the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean — in both the geographical and civilisational sense, Modi said. Inclusiveness, openness and ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) centrality and unity, therefore, lie at the heart of the new Indo-Pacific, Prime Minister Modi said at the prestigious Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Friday evening.

Expounding his vision of the Indo-Pacific region in a keynote address, Modi said, “India does not see the Indo-Pacific Region as a strategy or as a club of limited members, nor as a grouping that seeks to dominate”.

The Indian armed forces, especially the Navy, are building partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region for peace and security, as well as humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, he said. They train, exercise and conduct goodwill missions across the region.