In This Issue Since 1909 BIRTH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS Raksha Mantri Visits Forward Army... 4 (Initially published as FAUJI AKHBAR) Vol. 64 q No 21 25 Kartika- 9 Agrahayana, 1939 (Saka) 16-30 November 2017 The journal of India’s Armed Forces published every fortnight in thirteen languages including Hindi & English on behalf of Ministry of Defence. It is not necessarily an organ for the expression of the Government’s defence policy. The published items represent the views of respective writers and correspondents. Editor-in-Chief Hasibur Rahman Raksha Mantri Visits Senior Editor Ms Ruby T Sharma Goa Maritime Conclave... 6 Mumbai 8 Editor Ehsan Khusro Sub Editor Sub Maj KC Sahu Coordination Kunal Kumar Business Manager Rajpal Our Correspondents DELHI: Col Aman Anand; Capt DK Sharma VSM; Wg Cdr Anupam Banerjee; Manoj Tuli; Nampibou Marinmai; Ved Pal; Divyanshu Kumar; Photo Editor: K Ramesh; ALLAHABAD: Gp Capt BB Pande; BENGALURU: Guruprasad HL; CHANDIGARH: Anil Gaur; CHENNAI: T Shanmugam; GANDHINAGAR: Wg Cdr Abhishek Matiman; GUWAHATI: Lt Col Suneet Newton; IMPHAL: Lt Col Ajay Kumar Sharma; JALANDHAR : Anil Gaur; JAMMU: Col NN Joshi; 10 RRM inaugurates... JAIPUR: Lt Col Manish Ojha; KOCHI: Cdr Sridhar E Warrier ; KOHIMA: Col 11 MoS Defence addresses… Chiranjeet Konwer; KOLKATA: Wg Cdr SS Birdi; Dipannita Dhar; LUCKNOW: Raksha Mantri witnesses... Ms Gargi Malik Sinha; MUMBAI: Cdr Rahul Sinha; Narendra Vispute; NAGPUR: 12 MARATHA LI Battalions … 9 Wg Cdr Samir S Gangakhedkar; PUNE: Mahesh Iyengar; SECUNDERABAD: 13 Army Aviation celebrates… G Surendra Babu; SHILLONG; Lt Col Suneet Newton; SRINAGAR: Col Rajesh 14 Controllers Conference-2017 Kalia; TEZPUR: Lt Col Sombit Ghosh; THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Ms Dhanya Sanal K; UDHAMPUR: Col NN Joshi; VISAKHAPATNAM: Cdr CG Raju. 16 Army Chief Honours… 18 'Fipsphysiocon 2017' Published by: Ms Mattu JP Singh Addl DG (Media & Communication) 19 India-Sri Lanka… Nungsanglemba Ao, Director (PR) 21 Southern Naval Command... Directorate of Public Relations, South Block, 28 Dagger Army... Ministry of Defence, New Delhi-110011 30 CAC-28 Passing Out Parade Follow us on: 31 Rashtriya Ekta Diwas… www.facebook.com/DefenceMinIndia 33 Narmada Mahotsav... 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For all correspondence subscribers must quote their subscription number For more details visit our website: http://sainiksamachar.nic.in On front cover: A view of the 'Nirbhay' sub-sonic cruise missile of DRDO, successfully flight tested from the Integrated Test Range (ITR), Chandipur, Odisha on November 7, 2017 Raksha Mantri visits Forward Army & Air Force Bases in Assam & Arunachal Pradesh aksha Mantri Smt Nirmala RSitharaman visited the forward Army posts in Arunachal Pradesh and Air Force base in Eastern Assam on November 5, 2017. The visit to the forward army and Air Force bases followed her visits to Bomdilla and Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh where she attended the inauguration ceremony of the Buddha Mahotsav 2017 and called on the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh at Raj Bhawan in Itanagar. During her visit to the forward army post of Kibithu in Eastern Arunachal Pradesh, which is in continuation with her visits to forward areas along the Line of Actual Control, she was accompanied She also interacted with the troops air base of Chabua, where she by Lt Gen Abhay Krishna, GOC- and appreciated their dedication was received by Air Marshal Rajesh in-C, Eastern Command and other senior officers of the Indian Army. to the service and efforts in such a Kumar, Senior Air Staff Officer The Minister was briefed on the remote and inhospitable terrain. As HQ Eastern Air Command, and situation and defence preparedness part of this visit the Raksha Mantri Air Commodore George Thomas, along the Line of Actual Control. also visited the important Eastern AOC, Air Force Station Chabua. 4 Sainik Samachar November 16-30, 2017 Minister, which included the Sukhoi 30 MKI fighter aircraft and modern Missiles. She also interacted with Air Force personnel serving in this eastern most region of our nation and had lunch with the air warriors. She complimented the air warriors for their professional approach and commitment in the service of the nation. She appreciated the operational readiness, ongoing infrastructure development and the high morale of the Air Force personnel at the base. - Mattu JP Singh During the visit she took stock of the operational preparedness and infrastructure development of the base. The strategic base presented a static display of the combat assets available at the station to the Defence November 16-30, 2017 Sainik Samachar 5 Goa Maritime Conclave inaugurated by Raksha Mantri he Goa Maritime Conclave T(GMC) was inaugurated by Raksha Mantri Smt Nirmala Sitharaman at the Tarang Auditorium of INS Mandovi, Goa. The conclave was aimed at “Addressing Regional Maritime Challenges” wherein the deliberations were focused on emerging maritime threats and force structuring, maritime domain awareness, maritime security architecture, and maritime security challenges in the Indian Ocean Region(IOR). Each of these themes was elaborated upon by speakers of national and international renown, comprising a veritable who’s who of analysts, scholars and practitioners Raksha Mantri delivering Keynote address at Goa Maritime Conclave. such as Admiral Arun Prakash shape a favourable maritime of globalisation have enabled (Retd) of India, Admiral Dr Jayanth environment for all countries in the economics to shape transactional Colombage (Retd) of Sri Lanka, region added the Raksha Mantri. relationships between nations, Admiral Md Khurshed Alam of She further said that the IOR opaqueness in strategic intent and Bangladesh, Professor Ashley J Tellis, has progressively gained centre- incoherent behaviour by certain Dr C Raja Mohan, Professor Harsh V stage largely due to the political nations are preventing these very Pant and Dr Christian Bueger. impact of its regional dynamics on relationships from evolving beyond Delivering the key note address international geo-politics. One can their transactional nature. On land, the Raksha Mantri said that the Goa claim with considerable assertion the unresolved borders and riparian Maritime Conclave (GMC) aims to disputes which are predominantly that the future of the world will be bring together like minded nations a legacy of the colonial era shaped, to a large extent, by the to evolve and formulate collective are some of the key causes of political and economic interactions responses to emerging challenges conflict. Further, this impasse in between the stake holders in the in the maritime domain. It would international relationships, is a also provide an opportunity to IOR, she added. product of many causes such as communicate our viewpoints in a She further stated that “Whilst ideological differences, political forthright manner and collectively it is good that the compulsions insecurities, economic dependency, Raksha Mantri with delegates at Goa Maritime Conclave. 6 Sainik Samachar November 16-30, 2017 technological dependencies, inequitable access to resources, geographical imperatives etc. The net impact of these differences is that trust deficit and tensions between nations continue to persist, on account of perceived challenges to sovereignty, despite positive economic interactions between them. As international behaviour in the maritime medium is influenced considerably by land based imperatives, cordially or latent hostility prevalent amongst countries on land tends to be reflected in the Raksha Mantri being presented a painting by Admiral Sunil Lanba. seas”. Concluding her address the region and evolve customised nations. The CNS, however brought Raksha Mantri recommended the solutions to the challenges out that there is a perceptible lack of following to be deliberated during rather than importing extra- formal arrangements with respect to the GMC:- regional solutions and force- engagement between littoral navies (i) Evaluation of the impact of fit them on to the regional of the south and south eastern IOR emerging maritime security template. and the concept of GMC has been architectures on overcoming While delivering the inaugural evolved to bridge this gap and to maritime security challenges. address, Admiral Sunil Lanba, establish a regional maritime forum (ii) Shaping a discourse in the Chief of the Naval Staff thanked amongst like-minded navies of the region in order to work out the the Raksha Mantri to have graced region for the apex level dialogue. differences and capitalise on the occasion. He also thanked The Admiral further stressed commonalities so as to ensure all the delegates whose presence on creation of comprehensive maritime security in IOR. reaffirmed the bonhomie that is infrastructure, equipping the force (iii) Tapping the considerable shared by the navies and innate with technology and investing in intellectual capital resident in the friendship that prevails amongst the quality training while exercising financial prudence. He also said that by making large and long term financial