New Delhi, Oct 18 (IANS) India has strengthened its military power since the 1962 war with China and is now fully capable of defending itself, Defence Minister A.K. Antony said Thursday but admitted that infrastructure in the northeast needs to be upgraded.
‘We are now capable of defending every inch of our country,’ Antony told reporters on the sidelines of an Indian Navy conference here.
He was responding to a question on India’s preparedness to deal with China 50 years after the 1962 war in which India had suffered a humiliating defeat.
He, however, admitted that ‘infrastructure in the northeast is not up to our satisfaction’, but stressed that it has improved a lot as compared to the past.
‘The India of 2012 is not the India of that period,’ he said.
‘Now we have moved very fast. Now our infrastructure, assets and manpower have substantially improved compared to the past,’ he said while alluding to a slew of steps taken by India to upgrade its infrastructure in the northeastern states.
The minister underlined that India will continue to build its infrastructure and provide the best equipment to its armed forces even as it continued its dialogue with China on the border issue.
‘On the one side, we are strengthening our capability in the border, on the other side, we have established a border management mechanism with China that is now functioning satisfactorily,’ he said.
