Defence minister makes mega military sales pitch for diplomats of 80 nations

Defence minister makes mega military sales pitch for diplomats of 80 nations while speaking to the Heads of Missions and Defence Attaches of more than 80 countries on Monday, ahead of the DefExpo 2020 to be held in Uttar Pradesh's Lucknow from February 5 to 8, 2020.

New Delhi:Underlining India’s intent to achieve a turnover of USD 26 billion in aerospace and defence goods and services by 2025, Union defence minister Rajnath Singh made a major military sales pitch to the Heads of Missions and Defence Attaches of more than 80 countries on Monday as he laid out plans for the DefExpo 2020 to be held in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh from February 5 to 8, 2020.

Uttar Pradesh, besides Tamil Nadu, is central to India’s plans for building defence industrial corridors. In Uttar Pradesh, besides Lucknow, Agra, Aligarh, Chitrakoot, Jhansi, and Kanpur are the proposed production hubs.

More than 100 business events and seminars are being planned with over 1,000 exhibitors expected at the biennial event.

“DefExpo is an opportunity to foster partnerships and be part of shared prosperity. These strong ties can boost investment, expand manufacturing, raise the level of technology and accelerate economic growth of our respective countries,” Singh said.

Addressing ambassadors at a roundtable conference, the defence minister urged them to impress upon the captains of their respective defence industries to participate in DefExpo 2020 in a big way so as to “dive deep into the strategic and business opportunities available and to establish strategic partnerships”.

Underlining India’s big focus on military initiatives in the cyber domain and in space, Singh said: “The challenge is not just to prepare for contingencies but also to repel threats from multiple sources and at the same time possess the ability to respond proactively if needed.”

“India has one of the largest defence industrial ecosystems in South and Southeast Asia and we aspire to further build on our strengths,” he added.

In the last few years, the government has initiated reforms in several fields like simplifying the industrial licensing process, hike of Foreign Direct Investment cap to 49 per cent under automatic route and beyond 49 per cent under Government approval route, approval of Open General Export License policy and opening of testing and trial facilities for the private sector.

“We have achieved an export turnover of around Rs 10,700 crore in 2018-19, with the target of this year pegged at Rs 15,000 crore,” Singh pointed out.