India a great friend: Madagascar Defense Minister

In an exclusive conversation with ETV Bharat, Madagascar Defence Minister Lt.Gen Richard, who held official talks with counterpart Rajnath Singh along the sidelines of DefExpo 2020 in Lucknow, called India a "great friend".

New Delhi:Madagascar is thankful to India for timely and substantial aid provided to the small island nation in the wake of devastation caused by Cyclone Diane recently, says its Defence Minister Lt Gen Rokotonirina Richard.

In an exclusive conversation with ETV Bharat, Lt.Gen Richard who held official talks with counterpart Rajnath Singh along the sidelines of DefExpo 2020 in Lucknow, called India a "great friend".

The Indian Navy in the past few weeks provided assistance to the affected Malagasy population through its ‘Operation Vanilla’ to the Indian Ocean island nation off the coast of East Africa. INS Airavat was quickly diverted to provide support in the relief operations and medical camps were also set up for the locals.

Enhancing maritime security cooperation in the region was key to discussions between Rajnath Singh and Lt Gen Richard on the second day of DefExpo 2020 in Lucknow last week. Singh had stressed that as maritime neighbours ‘both countries have a responsibility to ensure a secure maritime environment so that trade and commerce flourish’.

Lt Gen Richard, in turn, stressed that ‘India has a great role to play in preserving security in the Indian ocean maritime region’.

In response to a tweet by President Rajoelina of Madagascar thanking India for its humanitarian assistance, PM Modi wrote earlier, “Connected to Madagascar by the Indian Ocean, India is committed to stand with Madagascar through thick and thin. I look forward to working with you for ‘Security And Growth of All in the Region’ (‘SAGAR’, which in Hindi means ocean).”

With a growing foothold of China in the Western Indian Ocean Region through its military base in Djibouti, India has stepped up its strategic cooperation with its African partners. The first-ever India Africa Defence Ministers’ Conclave was held during the 11th edition of the biennial defence exhibition DEFEXPO INDIA 2020 at Lucknow on February 6, 2020, in keeping with this strategy.

Over the years India has set up Defence Academies and Colleges in Nigeria, Ethiopia and Tanzania; deployed training teams in several African countries including Botswana, Namibia, Uganda, Lesotho, Zambia, Mauritius, Seychelles, Tanzania and also conducted goodwill ship visits as well as Defence Training Programmes.

“We also acknowledge contribution of Indian defence forces in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations such as during cyclone IDAI in Mozambique in 2019 and evacuation of stranded persons of 41 countries through Djibouti in 2018 and various other such operations over the years, including in Madagascar,” said the joint statement issued after the defence ministers meeting.

Recognising the common security challenges of terrorism and extremism, piracy, organised crime including human trafficking, drug trafficking, weapon smuggling, the Defence Minister’s Conclave also called for greater defence cooperation.

“We call for deeper cooperation in the domain of defence industry including through investment, joint ventures in defence equipment software, digital defence, research & development, provisioning of defence equipment, spares and their maintenance on sustainable and mutually beneficial terms,” said the formal statement.

In this conversation with Senior Journalist Smita Sharma, Defense Minister Richard underlined that India can help transform the defence capabilities of emerging economies.

Madagascar has meanwhile invited the Indian Defence Minister to attend its Independence day celebrations on June 26 this year.

Here is the full text of the interview with Lt.Gen Richard:

Give us a sense of how much destruction did the recent Cyclones cause in Madagascar?

Lt.Gen Richard - The last persistent rains caused flooding of several localities and caused heavy losses, both human and material. Officially, Madagascar has counted twenty-one dead, twenty missing and nearly 80,000 homeless.

Q2. How significant has Indian aid as a first responder been? What are your further expectations from New Delhi?

Lt.Gen Richard - The aid from the Indian government has been really substantial because, in addition to the almost 5 tonnes of food and medicine brought in, health care has also been provided. Also, Madagascar recognises India as a great friend for coming to support the Malagasy population in a short time during this difficult time. The President of the Republic in his tweet thanked the Indian government through Prime Minister Modi and the Minister of Defense Rajnath Singh.

Q3. Does India have the demonstrable capability to be a net security provider in the Indian Ocean?

Lt.Gen Richard - India is a large country recognised for its skills and worldwide reputation. The country demonstrates by DefExpo the power of attraction towards other countries of the world. Also, the conclave of the Ministers of Defense of African countries with their Indian counterpart showed the growing interest of African countries towards Indian computer industries. Moreover, progress and technological prowess have initiated a desire to strengthen cooperation with India.

Q4.What are you hoping to take away from the Defence Expo in Lucknow? What has your experience been like

Lt.Gen Richard-DefExpo is above all a major event in the history of a country because it demonstrates the capacity of the organizing country to go further. The performance of India in terms of defence digitalisation opens a future path to the transformation of the defence of emerging countries. The revolution in military affairs is no longer an elusive concept. Suddenly, there is demonstrated the growing interest in this digitalization even at a lower level to solve recurring security problems such as border control or the control of hostile armed blows within a given state.

Q5. What kind of military and security cooperation do you foresee between India and Madagascar?

Lt.Gen Richard - On the sidelines of the DefExpo in Lucknow, a conclave of Indian and African countries defence ministers including Madagascar took place. The goal is always to improve international security within the framework of India-Africa cooperation. Above all, we must not forget that India has a close link with Africa to cite only the case of Gandhi who studied in South Africa, the current Prime Minister who has a link with Zimbabwe. There is also the fact that India initiated the concept of non-aligned countries, all of that pushes us to strengthen ties with India. The Ocean where Madagascar is located bears the name of "Indian" and it is above all according to this, to strengthen cooperation between the two countries that the delegation attended the conference.