Visakhapatnam: Defence minister Rajnath Singh urged global powers to confront fast-evolving, intertwined maritime risks through cooperation rooted in respect and reciprocity, as India opened its largest-ever multilateral naval exercise, Exercise MILAN-2026.“When our ships sail together, when our sailors train together, and when our commanders deliberate together, we build a shared understanding that transcends geography and politics,” he said on Thursday.The defence minister addressed visiting navy chiefs and delegations from nine Asean members at the inaugural ceremony, welcoming participation that has grown from four foreign navies in 1995 to 74 nations this year.Navies now shoulder a broader burden as global commerce surges and competition sharpens around chokepoints and channels, he said. Interest in underwater resources, including rare earth minerals, is rising. Terror networks spanning borders complicate security, while climate change is intensifying disasters and pushing humanitarian missions to the fore. “No single navy, however capable, can address these challenges alone,” Singh said.Inviting Asean countries to tap India’s expanding defence-industrial base, he said the govt’s Aatmanirbhar Bharat push led by PM Narendra Modi has transformed India into a “builder’s navy”. He cited aircraft carrier INS Vikrant and the Visakhapatnam-class destroyers as proof of growing indigenous shipbuilding capacity.Singh traced India’s maritime outlook from SAGAR to its expanded vision, MAHASAGAR, signalling wider engagement. He backed United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea as a durable framework and called for stronger global naval architecture. India, he said, will remain a steady “vishwa mitra” in the Indo-Pacific.
