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Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday called for “shared global peace” that countries should collectively aspire to achieve in a rules-based world order and stated that historically, armed forces for India were never an instrument of aggression for extending political power.
In his opening remarks at the 12th edition of the biennial multi-nation Exercise MILAN in Visakhapatnam, the Defence Minister stated that the concept of peace could have different connotations, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said in a statement. Singh said that “negative peace” often stems from dominance or hegemony of one power over the other. And such peace, not backed by fairness and justice, is what physicists and economists call “unstable equilibrium”, the MoD quoted Defence Minister has having observed.
Another set, as Rajnath Singh explained, is “cold peace” — a scenario where parties do not kill each other openly but do do their best to undermine one another. He was of the the view that cold peace is merely an interval between direct conflicts.
He, however, told the gathering at the ceremony that “positive peace” goes beyond the mere absence of direct military conflict and encompasses broader notions of security, justice, and cooperation. “The positive peace is the shared peace of one and all, with the cooperation of one and all. There is no Indian peace or Australian peace or Japanese peace, rather it is the shared global peace. This sentiment was also eloquently set forth by our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi when he said ‘This is not an era of war. But it is one of dialogue and diplomacy’,” he said.
Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral R Hari Kumar, Ministers, Ambassadors, Chiefs of Navies, and representatives of maritime forces from over 50 friendly countries were present on the occasion.
He said that India will continue to play role of Vishwa Mitra but he assured that “we will not shrink from countering any threat that undermines our collective well-being, piracy and trafficking included”.
Navy Chief
Admiral R Hari Kumar spoke of the oceans as ‘global commons’, which have been the binding force uniting nations and nurturing people-to-people connect since times immemorial. From five IOR navies in 1995 to 50 navies across the Indo-Pacific today, MILAN reflects the growing stature and increasing importance of such collective and cooperative endeavours in the maritime domain, he said.
Admiral R Hari Kumar spoke of the oceans as ‘global commons,’ which have been the binding force uniting nations and nurturing people-to-people connections since time immemorial. From five IOR navies in 1995 to 50 navies across the Indo-Pacific today, MILAN reflects the growing stature and increasing importance of such collective and cooperative endeavours in the maritime domain, he said.
“These are not merely naval exercises, but a testament to the collective expertise and strength we bring to the fore as maritime nations,” he added.
On the occasion, the Raksha Mantri also launched the NISHAR communication terminal. Since communication forms an important link in achieving interoperability, the Indian Navy has developed MITRA terminals with the Nishar application to connect with all friendly partner navies.
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