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Wednesday, February 21, 2007

India's Defence Minister sees the "tip of the iceberg"


As set out here:
Describing the recent seizure of arms and explosives off Chennai as possibly "the tip of the iceberg," Defence Minister A.K. Antony on Sunday warned of "lurking dangers" along the coast.

He was addressing presspersons on board ICG ship Sagar after the fleet review of Coast Guard ships and aircraft held off the Goa coast to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the force.

In reply to a question on the incident involving a suspected LTTE boat, he said: "It is not only Chennai, it could just be the tip of the iceberg. There could be similar incidents at sea; there could be many other instances which go unreported."

Stating that constant vigil is needed to secure the long coastline and territorial waters, he declared "hereafter, surveillance of the coast will be the topmost priority of the Coast Guard and the Navy."
***
With the economy growing, sea-borne trade, energy needs, and under-sea cabling needs are bound to mount over the next few years. "We need to curb maritime terrorism, piracy, drug trafficking and smuggling," he said.
Sounds like India is gearing up and for whatever the contribution of the terrorist group LTTE (Tamil Tigers) is to that, I say, "Thanks!"

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