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India must maintain parity with China
in force modernisation: Fernandes

Faced with the possibility of a "limited" war with a "nuclear overhang," India must maintain parity with China and other neighbours in the context of force modernisation programmes being undertaken by them, Defence Minister George Fernandes said Monday.

Asserting that New Delhi's defence modernisation programme is "running parallel" with that of China, Fernandes, delivering a keynote address at a seminar in New Delhi, insisted that the nation's defence planning was not in any way inferior to Beijing.

"Many changes are taking place in our neighbourhood which will affect future power balance. These changes naturally raise many questions. What, for example, would be implications of the Chinese modernisation for us in the next decade or so?" Fernandes asked.

The country also must consider how long Pakistan's current isolation would continue and how to tackle any introduction of new technology in the region, he said.

The seminar was organised by the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses.

Later, talking to reporters on the sidelines of the seminar, the defence minister said programmes like the recent agreement with Russia to manufacture Su-30MKI would give a boost to the country's defence preparedness.

Air Commodore (retd) Jasjit Singh, director, IDSA, said by year 2007 China, with indigenous production of SU-27s, would have 300 of them and would pose problems for India's outdated eastern air fleet.

Singh said the Chinese, after the signing of the 1993 agreement with Russia, had got access to Russian weaponry design base to bring about a "substantive and qualitative change in its weapons technology base."

Together with building up a hi-tech air force, the Chinese had since early 1980s embarked upon a planned programme for building up a professional officer cadre for the Red Army and the next few years would see most of these young officers in top echelons of the People's Liberation Army, he said.

Referring to these issues, Fernandes, in his address, said questions on management of defence costs, infusion of technology and force modernisation would have to be answered.

PTI

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