India asks Netherlands not to supply arms to Pak: Officials
Singh told the visiting minister that arming Pakistan was detrimental to regional security and countries friendly to India must not support a known sponsor of terrorism.
India on Tuesday asked the Netherlands not to equip the Pakistani military with weapons and systems or share advanced technologies with that country as India has been battling Pakistan-sponsored terrorism for years, with the matter being raised by defence minister Rajnath Singh during a meeting with his Dutch counterpart Ruben Brekelmans in Delhi, people aware of the matter said.
Singh told the visiting minister that arming Pakistan was detrimental to regional security and countries friendly to India must not support a known sponsor of terrorism, the people said, asking not to be named. The Netherlands and Pakistan are known to collaborate in the naval domain, and the former supplied second-hand minehunters, and offshore patrol vessels to the latter.
During the meeting, Singh and Brekelmans also discussed boosting bilateral cooperation in areas including defence, security, information exchanges, the Indo-Pacific region and new technologies, the defence ministry.
“The two ministers explored the possibilities of collaboration in shipbuilding, equipment and space sectors, optimising the complementariness in skills, technology and scale of the two countries. They also discussed working together in domains like artificial intelligence and related technologies, besides connecting their respective defence technology research institutes and organisations,” it added.
Singh wrote on X about deepening defence ties with the Netherlands
“Delighted to meet the young and dynamic Defence Minister of Netherlands, Mr. Ruben Brekelmans in New Delhi. We reviewed the full range of India-Netherlands defence cooperation. We look forward to further deepen and elevate our defence partnership. The areas of our discussion included defence, cyber security, Indo-Pacific and emerging technologies like AI.”
On Monday, Singh flagged India’s concerns about the activities of US-based secessionist group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), which has called for the creation of Khalistan, and its links with Pakistan’s spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence to create trouble in Punjab, during talks with US director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
He urged Gabbard to designate the SFJ, headed by Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, as a terrorist entity and clamp down on its anti-India activities being carried out on Americal soil.
Last year, Singh said if terrorists try to disrupt peace or attempt to carry out terror activities in the country, India will give them a befitting reply and hunt them down even in Pakistan, voicing the government’s resolve to take on terror even on foreign soil.
