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Journalism of Courage
Indian Air Force (IAF) chief Air Chief Marshal SP Tyagi will kick off a five-day tour of Singapore and Malaysia on Saturday to whet their interest in strategic military partnership with India. Tyagi will meet Singapore Air Force chief Major General Lim Kim Choon and his Malaysian counterpart General Dato Mohamed.
The visit aims to take South East Asian nations into confidence so that depend on India more for immediate strategic needs, including training, exercises and military equipment, than other powers.
A senior IAF officer told The Indian Express today that it was time to consolidate the general confidence in Indian capability of hosting joint exercises and training, and offering quality equipment—demonstrated effectively in the last two years—in the region.
The IAF flight is being dove-tailed with South Block’s nod to upgradation of several facilities to match international training and exercise. Navy chief Admiral Arun Prakash had visited the South East in June 2005, and Army chief General JJ Singh is expected to visit the region this year.
Singapore, which sent F-16s for training in Kalaikunda last December, is interested in using the Mahajan Ranges for bombing and missile fire practice with the government inclined too.
When Tyagi was in Colombo last month, he conveyed to the Sri Lankan Air Force that Kalaikunda would be very suitable for training of their fighter jet fleet, comprising mostly Russian MiG-27s. Tyagi’s predecessor, Air Chief Marshal S Krishnaswamy, had also offered training to Myanmar in October 2004.
After the Indo-US air exercise in Kalaikunda last November, the government gave nod to IAF vision of Indian air bases as training grounds of choice for neighbouring nations.
