KARACHI, May 7: Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Shahid Kareemullah said on Friday that a doctrine of minimum deterrence was being maintained for country's defence and there was no need of power projection.

Speaking to newsmen after the concluding session of a three-day International Ports and Shipping Conference (IPSC), organized by the KPT, he said that as a policy matter, Pakistan was only keeping minimum deterrence.

In reply to a question, Admiral Kareemullah said that as the relations with India were still not so good, therefore there was no question of naval ships of both the countries to call at each others ports.

He said negotiations with the Peoples Republic of China were in final stages for the purchase of four frigates. Each frigate with a dead weight of 3000 tons would have a facility to carry helicopter, he added.

Admiral Kareemullah said Pakistan was seeking a soft loan from China for the purchase of these frigates. He also said the Pakistan Navy had set its defence goals and equipment requirements and put them before the government for approval.

In reply to another question, he said that according to the master plan of Ormara Naval Base, commercial activities could be also be carried out there. He said that after the Gwadar bomb blast, the security of the under-construction port had been handed over to the Pakistan Navy.

The admiral disclosed that Pakistan last month gave a frigate to participate in a worldwide peace programme looked after by maritime coalition forces jointly to deter terrorist activities.

Earlier, speaking at the concluding session of the moot, he emphasized that exchange of information and ideas, joint planning and knowledge of each others' limitations were imperative for economic progress.

"Isolation, lack of information and shut doors can only lead us to doom. If trade and commerce are to flourish, then contact, interaction, talking, debating, and conferencing have to be made a way of life," he remarked.

The world, he said, has changed. Globalization and internationalism is here and to stay, and boundaries are changing their meaning. The days of walls, barbed wires, iron curtains and trenched armies are gone. Space has changed to cyberspace which is the fourth dimension of information.

He said the world was indeed learning to deal with regions, instead of individual countries, and states were comfortable to be referred to as Saarc countries, Asean states, Nafta rim, and the European Union members.

"We have to learn to exist and prosper first as a region and then integrate ourselves in the global village," he stressed. The naval chief said that the very purpose of navies was to keep the sea lines of communication open for safe and un-interrupted trade activity. The Pakistan Navy had always performed this task with success and would keep it up, he vowed.

"I want to reassure our business community that your sea lines are in safe hands," he said. Admiral Kareemullah said the new lessons learned from the conference would be manifested in our plans and policies.