By NNN-PTI
New Delhi : With disturbances in India’s neighbourhood weighing on his mind, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said the country needed to be alert to these developments as they could impact its internal security.
“We must take note of the fact that political and social disturbances in neighbouring countries can also impact our internal security and peace… We have to be alert to these developments and deal with the dangers that lie ahead,” he said.
Writing under the caption “India needs to think big – be proactive to play the global game”, Singh said in an article in the first issue of “India and Global Affairs” magazine that there was a link between external and internal threats to country’s security.
The effect of these disturbances included crises that generate an inflow of refugees and destabilise India’s border areas. “We see signs of the ills of disaffection, alienation and conflict not only in India but also across our neighbourhood,” he told the magazine, being brought out by popular Marathi daily ‘Sakaal’.
The breakdown of effective international mechanisms also affected the security of individual countries, he said adding as long as terrorism was seen as a phenomenon that was ‘elsewhere’, the international community was unwilling to adopt an effective coordinated strategy to deal with the menace that constitutes a grave threat to the civilised world.