Highlighting the importance of safeguarding borders, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Friday said the country would have progressed at a faster pace if its frontiers had been more secure.
He was speaking at the Border Security Force’s (BSF) investiture ceremony here.
“Secure borders are not only important for territorial integrity but also have a significant impact on the internal security of the country. Frontiers hold a lot of importance because that is the limit which defines sovereignty,” Doval said.
“Presume if both our borders with our western and northern neighbours had been secure and not in a state of an adversarial disposition, how would it have affected the nation’s internal and external security?…India’s economic progress would probably had been much faster if we had more secure borders,” he emphasized.
The National Security Advisor (NSA) said during the last 10 years, the Narendra Modi government had paid high attention towards security and management of the borders.
He further underlined that there is no Diwali in which the prime minister had not gone to the farthest frontiers of our country.
He added that the border guarding forces also hold significance and have the responsibility to be alert 24 x7 as in the foreseeable future, the borders are going to be as secure as required for fast growth.
“The secure borders are also crucial for preventing insurgency, organized crime, drug trafficking, human trafficking, among others,” Doval said.
The NSA said the times are changing and India is also changing at a fast pace, and in the next 10 years, the country’s economy will be a 10 trillion dollar economy.
He added that the nation will have the world’s largest workforce and technically will be advanced in semiconductors, manufacturing of defense equipment and also evolve as a major global supply hub