NEW DELHI: In a clear departure from tradition, the Ministry of Defence has not named Pakistan and China while assessing the security scenario for 2015-16.
The annual report of the MoD released on Monday only talks about “strengthening relations with neighbours”. “The security situation in India’s immediate South Asian neighbourhood presents a mixed picture. While there was an improvement in the security and political situation in some countries, political developments caused a worsening of the internal security situation in others, ” the report said. The MoD had in its 2014-15 annual report sounded alarm over increasing Chinese activities in the Indian Ocean region and Pakistan’s use of terrorism as state policy with deep roots in the military establishment as major obstacles for peaceful bilateral dialogue. It had even described Pakistan’s northwest frontier province area as the “fountainhead” of terror activities in the region.
“The use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy has deep roots in Pakistan military establishment,” it said. Meanwhile, Pakistan has decided to opt out of the Saarc satellite project announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014 and now it will be a South Asia satellite, the governments said on Tuesday.
The government has sought in-principle consent from all Saarc nations to pursue the project and it has heard from all but Pakistan. The satellite is scheduled to be launched as per schedule in December this year.