Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will fly to Tashkent Uzbekistan tomorrow, 23rd August to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit (SCO) of Defence Ministers.
On the sidelines of the summit, he will hold bilateral talks with his Uzbek counterpart Lt General Nizamovich.
Discussions on counter-terrorism will be the key focus of the meeting.
Defence ministers of Russia, Kazakhstan, Pakistan and host Uzbekistan will be present at the summit.
The full-fledged summit will be held next month on 22nd September.
He has also planned interaction with the Indian community present in Uzbekistan.
Today, Rajnath Singh will be presiding over a high-level meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council. This crucial meeting will have discussions of DAC granting the defence forces emergency acquisition powers to procure crucial systems. This will allow the armed forces to purchase crucial weapon systems through fast-track routes.
This will include procurement of much need equipment like artillery, bulletproof vests and various other systems like swarm drones for the army.
These purchases have stretched the armed forces’ preparedness and readiness as acquisitions like the Israeli Heron reconnaissance drone, HAMMER air-to-ground bombs for Rafale and Sig Saur 716 rifles have been procured.
The armed forces have extensively used this power to strengthen their position in times of conflict and the government has granted them these powers in phases.
Indian Armed Forces have procured foreign and Indian-made weapons using such powers.
A pre-DAC meeting is also on his agenda and the three chiefs of all the branches of the armed forces are set to attend that meeting.