LD PM 2 LAST

Inaugurating the day-long conference, which was also
addressed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Home
Minister P Chidambaram, Singh spoke on the challenges posed by
terrorism, naxalism, economic recession, climate change and
outlined the policy to deal with these.
Referring to the Mumbai attacks, he said the incident
had confirmed "our worst fears about the lethal dimensions of
terrorism and non-traditional threats to our security".
Observing that armed forces must be fully equipped to
deal with all threat scenarios, the Prime Minister said "our
troops should be trained to fight anywhere, anytime and under
any conditions. Their ability to deal with non-traditional
threats must receive greater attention."
He said the government is fully committed to the
modernisation of armed forces and ensuring their military
superiority and technological edge.
Singh also talked about the issue of nuclear
non-proliferation, expressing India's readiness to participate
in negotiations on Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT)
which is "multilateral, non-discriminatory and verifiable".
On Climate Change, he accused the developed nations of
making "concerted attempts" to impose new obligations on
developing nations like India to limit greenhouse gas
emissions, which could impact the country's economic
development.
He was also optimistic on the economic front, saying
the growth rate was expected to be 6 to 6.5 per cent in the
current year. PTI