New Delhi, February 19
Defence Minister George Fernandes today dispelled doubts that prolonged deployment along the borders would lead to fatigue setting in among the troops and ruled out de-escalation until Pakistan addressed the concerns of India with regard to terrorism.

“India had moved its forces due to certain reasons...there are certain conditions which have not been met. The troops will remain there till they are required”, he said addressing a press conference on the sidelines of Defexpo 2002, which he inaugurated.

Mr Fernandes claimed that the heavy concentration of troops on the border was not costing anything additional to the government. “Its normal day-to-day cost...nothing additional goes into it, excepting some allowances”. He, however, admitted that troop mobilisation did cost a lot of money to the exchequer. Similarly, their backward movement would also cost a lot of money.

Asked if he visualised an increase in the defence outlay in the Union Budget for 2002-03, the Defence Minister said he would not be able to say anything in this regard since his ministry was returning a substantial amount of unutilised money. He, however, clarified that there would be no shortage of funds for the defence forces to procure latest arms and weapons.

Mr Fernandes was also dismissive of Pakistan’s statement that India’s weapon acquisition was a destabilising factor in the region. He curtly said, “Pakistan will not decide what we need. We will take the decision.”

About unutilised funds in the ministry, Mr Fernandes explained there was a gestation period for any defence purchases and production which quite often spilled over to the next financial year. “A major part of the unspent amount of Rs 13 crore will be utilised by the end of this financial year.”

Incidentally, Indian armed forces are still to spend over 70 per cent of the amount allocated for purchases in the last year’s Budget.

Answering a query, the minister said he saw no conflict of interests in India’s simultaneous enhancement of defence cooperation with the USA on one hand and Russia on the other. “In international relations, we have to do balancing act in economic and diplomatic relations and similarly in defence ties,” he said.

Mr Fernandes said critical military components had now started coming in from Russia. In this connection, he referred to the recent successful visit of Russian Minister Ilya Klebanov during which the two countries signed three major protocols on defence acquisition by India and joint production.

On Indo-US defence cooperation, he said the three services of the two countries would soon start joint exercises off the coast of Malabar. “The programme is being worked out and this will be a regular feature.”