New Delhi: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, along with Russian Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov, attended the India-Russia Joint Commission meeting held with the aim to improve cooperation between the two countries in the field of Disaster Management here on Tuesday.
During the meeting, Singh said that the two countries are linked by geography, history and culture and the linkages in the field of disaster management have continued to grow beyond boundaries.
The Home Minister mentioned that during the Third World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction during March last year in Sendai, Japan had agreed to enhance ongoing cooperation in dealing with emergency situation, natural disasters, research and training.
He said that India is one of the most disaster prone countries in the world.
“Floods, droughts, cyclones and landslides are common hazards,” he added. He mentioned that the country is committed for convergence of disaster risk reduction with developmental programmes and disaster management is not an issue of disaster alone rather it has now become more of development issue.
Singh said that the cooperation in the areas such as controlling floods, minimizing its consequences as well as collaboration in capacity building has been rightly highlighted in our Joint Implementation Plan.
He hoped that with the signing of the Joint Implementation Plan, the two countries will acquire new character with enhanced levels of cooperation in the field of Disaster Risk Reduction.
Speaking on this occasion, Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju said that the output of this deliberation will pave way for the comprehensive and structured cooperation to build capacities of the first responder and other allied forces.
He said that the Annual Summit meeting between the Prime Minister of India and the President of the Russian Federation is the highest institutionalized dialogue mechanism under the Strategic Partnership between India and the Russian Federation.
Rijiju further said that the field of Disaster Management would initiate new era of friendship that will enable both sides to work in close proximity in order to minimize the risk we face due to increased frequency of natural calamities. He further said that India will be benefitted by the state of the art technology and structures, Russia have created to monitor real time basis different events.
He mentioned that India has developed sufficient experience in handling disasters and has always been willing to extend technical and financial support to the neighbouring countries. In the aftermath of Nepal earthquake 2015, India was the first country to provide humanitarian assistance and to lead the rescue efforts, he added.
The Minister mentioned that India has adopted an integrated approach to ensure sustainable, inclusive development. He said that India is making consistent efforts to include disaster mitigation features into the new development programs including revisiting some of the ongoing development schemes for mainstreaming disaster risk reduction. (ANI)