By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, March 22, 2015 :

There is something for Odishan to cheer about. Union defense minister, Manhar Parikar on Sunday said raising of Kalinga Regiment is under consideration.

“But it is premature to comment on it”, he said adding that the presence of defense in Odisha will be beefed up in view of its strategic location.

Addressing a press conference here on the sidelines of the concluding day of three day international conference on “India & the Indian Ocean: Renewing the Maritime Trade & Civilisational Linkages , Parikar said “Piracy is a big threat in this region. Navy of several states are engaging them. But of late Somali pirates are shifting their base towards India and are proving to be a considerable threat to international shipping for a long time now. However there is no such threat to India as their base is still 450 nautical miles away from India”.

However, he cautioned not to be complacent. “We are aware about the potential threats from them”, he added.

Replying to a question, Manohar made it clear that India is aware of security threats to the Indian Ocean Rim Countries [IORC].

“We are already beefing up defense preparedness though training of defense personnel of some of these countries. Besides, we have entered into some kind of pacts to defend our interest in the Indian Ocean”, he said without mentioning the name of any country posing threat to peace and tranquility in the Indian Ocean.

The minister announced that the presence of defense in Odisha will be more visible in the coming days in view of the state’s strategic location and presence of key defense establishments like Interim Test Range [ITR] at Chandipur and other organizations.

The defense minister was here to attend the valedictory function of the conference.