Pak, China 'major irritants' to India's security: Army Chief

New Delhi, Oct 15 (PTI) Viewing Pakistan and China to be
"major irritants" to India's security, Indian Army Chief
General V K Singh on Friday said the nation should be ready
with "substantial" conventional war capability in a nuclear
backdrop.
Singh, who inaugurated an Army seminar here, said the
threats from Pakistan was caused by its governance problems
and support to terror outfits, while the challenge from China
was in the form of its military capabilities.
However, Indian Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal P V
Naik, who was asked about Singh's comments at another
function, said he was not willing to be drawn into the debate
on which country was the biggest threat to India's security.
Naik said the country's military modernisation should be
capability-specific and not adversary-specific, lest it led to
an arms race in the region.
"We have two major irritants. One, there is a problem of
governance in Pakistan where terror outfits receive support
and where internal situation is not very good. And, therefore,
it can have a fallout in terms of how these things impact
India.
"Till the time the terrorist infrastructure remains
intact on the other side, we have something to worry," Singh
said at the seminar on 'Indian Army: Emerging Roles and
Tasks' organised by Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS),
an Army-sponsored think-tank.
Referring to the threat posed by China, which
was "rising both economically and militarily," the Army Chief
said India needed to keep a watchful eye on the military
intentions of the eastern neighbour.
"Although we have a very stable border, yet we have a
border dispute. And, therefore, the intentions need to be
looked at along with this additional capability that is coming
out," he said.
An all-out conventional war with China was "not not
certain", but skirmishes were "certainly possible," he added.
"We must have a substantial conventional war-fighting
capabilities with the ability to fight in a nuclear scenario,"
he stressed.
The Army chief said, China's military modernisation
"impacts the way we will task our army and the role that we
will give to it so that it can do the task that the nation
wants. So, with this, lets also see what are some of the
threats that we face or the challenges that we have".
He, however, noted that India had no "extra-territorial
ambitions."
Naik, meanwhile, said the country should have long-term
military development plans that are capability-specific and
not country or threat specific.
"We (armed forces' modernisation) have to be capability
specific... We have realised that being country-specific or
threat-specific will lead us into an arms race," he said at an
event here. (MORE) PTI NCB
AVT


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