Days after openly criticising China's assertive actions in the Indo-Pacific, India's defence minister Rajnath Singh declared that his country is totally committed to freedom of navigation, overflight, and unhindered lawful commerce in international waters in accordance with international standards.
The Asean and its dialogue partners should “actively collaborate” to ensure peace, prosperity and security in the region, with all adhering to international norms like the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) 1982, Singh said while addressing the Asean defense ministers’ meeting-plus (ADMMPlus) in Jakarta.
“Dialogue and diplomacy are the way forward for global peace and stability,” Singh said, amid the renewed heightened tensions in the South China Sea due to Beijing’s strong arm expansionist tactics against its smaller neighbors and the continuing military conflict in eastern Ladakh.
Singh reiterated India's message to the globe that "this is not an era of war" and emphasised the need to abandon the "us versus them" mentality. "Consultative and development-oriented initiatives to reflect the larger consensus among various stakeholders" are what he asked for in regional security.
He stated that in order to improve marine security in the area, India was dedicated to "nurturing practical, forward-looking and result-oriented cooperation" with ADMM-Plus. Apart from the 10 Asean countries, the ADMM-Plus includes India, China, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia and the US as the dialogue partners. China and Russia, however, were represented by senior officials instead of their defense ministers at the meet.