Dispelling fears that strategic defence ties with Israel might slow down with a new government taking over at the centre,
Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday said there is convergence of views among coalition partners in the United Progressive Alliance on the country's security interests.
Mukherjee indicated that major defence deals like building of French Scorpion submarines and multi-role fighter aircraft for the Indian Air Force would go through to fulfill the strategic needs of the armed forces.
To a spate of questions whether defence ties with Israel would be stalled as some of the coalition partners are opposed to it, the defence minister said such issues would be worked out in the common minimum programme of the UPA.
India and Israel in the past six years have entered into major defence deals running into thousands of crores of rupees. The deals include supply by Israel of Phalcon air-borne early warning systems, unmanned aerial vehicles, ground sensors and Travor infantry combat assault rifles.
On the $ 2 billion deal to build the Scorpion French submarines at Mazgaon Docks in Mumbai, Mukherjee said such deals would go through after a scrutiny.
In his first informal interaction with reporters after taking over as defence minister, Mukherjee was non-committal on whether the probe in 'coffin scandal' would be reopened. He, however, asserted the United Progressive Alliance government would lay emphasis on transparency on defence purchases without delaying procurements.
Current modernisation and upgradation programmes in the armed forces would continue, he said and ruled out any thinning of army from its present anti-militancy role. "Internal security threat and external security threat have got inter-linked because of cross-border terrorism and in such conditions there can be no divestment of the army from its counter-terrorism role," the defence minister said.
He said terrorist attacks like the one that took place on Sunday in which 33 Border Security Force personnel and their relatives were killed are aimed at frustrating the Indo-Pak peace process.
