Gen Bipin Rawat declares

BY S VENKAT NARAYAN,

Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI:

India’s Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat has declared that India is ready to handle a two-front threat from China and Pakistan.  

He said Pakistan could try to take advantage of any threat developing along India’s northern borders with China, and warned that the neighbour’s army will suffer heavy losses if it attempts any misadventure amid rising tensions between India and China in the Ladakh sector.

 The latest flashpoint in the north was triggered by provocative Chinese actions on the southern bank of Pangong Tso, after which India made counter-manoeuvres to occupy key heights.

Speaking at a seminar organised on Thursday by the United States-India Strategic Partnership Forum on Navigating New Challenges, Gen Rawat highlighted the threat of “coordinated action” by the militaries of China and Pakistan along the northern and western borders, and stressed that the Indian armed forces are capable of handling the joint threat.

 The CDS said India’s military strategy to deal with a twin challenge will be based on identifying a primary and a secondary front for conducting operations.

 His comments came on a day the Indian Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane reached Leh for a two-day security review of the Ladakh sector, where armies of the two Asian giants have deployed almost 100,000 soldiers and weaponry in their forward and depth areas.

 The Indian Army has rejigged its deployments at multiple points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh, including the northern bank of Pangong Lake, to prevent the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) from making aggressive manoeuvres to unilaterally alter the status quo in contested areas.

 Tensions flared in the sensitive sector after the Indian Army occupied key heights on the southern bank of Pangong Lake a week ago to stop the PLA from grabbing Indian territory in a stealthy midnight move.

 Brigade commander-ranked officers from the two sides met for the fourth time in Chushul on Thursday to de-escalate tensions, but the talks were inconclusive with neither army prepared to make concessions.

 On Wednesday, Indian Air Force (IAF) Chief Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria visited front-line bases under the Shillong (Meghalaya)-based Eastern Air Command to review the IAF’s operational readiness in the eastern sector.

 India has strengthened its military posture across the length of the LAC —- from Ladakh to Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh to deal with any provocation by the Chinese military.

India is also keeping a strict vigil on the western front to deter Pakistan from fishing in troubled waters and prevent what could turn out to be a two-front conflict.

 Experts said collusive action by China and Pakistan was a possibility. “While hostility with Pakistan is out in the open, we are now witnessing military coercion by China in the Ladakh sector. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that they could collude militarily. They already have strategic collusion,” said Lieutenant General DS Hooda (retd), former Northern Army commander.

He, however, stressed that China might not pose a collusive threat if hostilities were to break out between India and Pakistan.

Gen. Rawat said India has border management protocols with China to promote peace and tranquility along the border. But, of late, there have been aggressive actions by China, and the Indian military is fully capable of handling them. He said India is keeping track of infrastructure development by China in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) and its implications are being considered while devising military strategy.

Rawat said India and the US will shortly finalise the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) for sharing geospatial intelligence. He said India was seeking collaboration with the US to acquire high-end technologies in areas such as aerospace, space and artificial intelligence.

There is tremendous scope for investments in India with the foreign direct investment limit raised to 74%, he added.