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China a great neighbour, says defence ministry annual report

China's assistance to Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme notwithstanding, India regards Beijing as "a great neighbour" and not as an adversary, says the defence ministry's annual report that was released today.

The report for 1998-99 noted that China's transfer of missiles and missile technology to Pakistan was affecting the security situation in South Asia. But New Delhi would like to develop mutually beneficial and friendly relations with Beijing and resolve the boundary dispute with the country, peacefully and through bilateral relations, it said.

The defence ministry described the country's national security environment after Pokhran II tests as relatively stable. There was greater international acceptance of India's need for developing a credible minimum deterrent against the use or threat of use of weapons of mass destruction.

The need for India to have a secure, effective and credible minimum deterrent, would not be circumscribed in range and payload by any outside pressure or influence but will be determined by the country's threat perceptions, it said.

The ministry called for indigenous research, development and production to insulate the country from the effect of restrictions on the transfer of material, equipment and technologies.

It said the emergence of ideology-linked terrorism, support and abetment of separatist insurgency in other countries, economic crises and the spread of small arms were some of the factors linking India's security directly with its extended neighbourhood. The security overlap included India's neighbouring countries and the regions of Central Asia, south-east Asia, the gulf and the Indian Ocean.

It noted that India's relations with Pakistan had improved. Along with the political initiatives taken by the government, Indian security forces had managed to contain the level of militancy, eliminating more than 3,000 militants since 1996 and arresting over 6,500 in the Jammu and Kashmir region.

The militancy in Jammu and Kashmir continued to show a downward trend, the report said. The revival of political activity in J and K, increasing disillusionment of the people with militancy and effective operations of the security forces had been largely responsible for the improved situation, it claimed.

But in the North-Eastern region, the militant activities of the various insurgent and extremist groups and ethnic tension had kept the security conditions disturbed in several areas.

Networking among the various militant groups in the region, reliance on trans-border bases and projection of alleged human rights violations were some of the important aspects of the militancy in the region.

The report said that Central Asian countries and India had a common stake in countering negative phenomena such as religious extremism, terrorism and ethnic conflicts. In this regard, it said the violent conditions in Afghanistan had complicated the regional security environment.

UNI

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