Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday said the Government cannot walk a "thin line" to compel Indian armed forces to buy indigenous weapons, after she opened a major defence trade fair that projects India — world's biggest global arms importer — as one of the major military equipment manufacturing hubs. The four-day DefExpo India, themed "Emerging Defence Manufacturing Hub," and being held at Thiruvidanthai off the East Coast Road near here, is the 10th biennial exercise aimed at establishing Brand India and highlighting the manufacturing capabilities of the country's defence sector.
Asked about the huge export-import gap in the defence sector of a country that does not even figure among the top 25 exporters of arms with even its own forces hesitating to buy locally-manufactured weapon systems, Sitharaman said she could only tell the Indian armed forces to procure from indigenous companies "as much as possible".