West Asia crisis: Rajnath Singh calls for swift decisions, long-term readiness

Defense Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday, March 29, 2026, underlined the need to ensure medium and long-term preparedness and rapid decision-making to navigate the impact of the evolving crisis in West Asia.

Mr. Singh made the statement while chairing the first meeting of the Informal Group of Ministers (IGoM), set up to monitor the situation in West Asia.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Energy Minister Manohar Lal and Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister JP Nadda attended the meeting.

Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Minister Prahlad Joshi, Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu and Minister of State for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh also attended the talks.

According to the official statement, the IGoM took a holistic assessment of the evolving situation and its impact on various sectors in India.

Defense Minister Singh emphasized the need for a proactive, coordinated and forward-looking approach and underlined the importance of remaining vigilant in the face of the evolving scenario.

The IGoM meeting was held to review risks to energy supply, domestic availability of essential commodities, critical infrastructure resilience and the robustness of India’s supply chains in the wake of the ongoing conflict in West Asia, Mr. Singh said in a statement on social media.

“There have been in-depth discussions on all the measures taken by the Government of India. The NDA Government led by Prime Minister @narenddamodi is closely monitoring the situation and is committed to protecting the Indian people from any impact of the conflict,” he said.