Dharamsala, September 15 – The Indian defence minister A K Antony has said China’s increasingly assertive position is worrisome. Antony was speaking at the annual combined commanders’ conference on Monday in the Indian capital. The conference was attended by PM Manmohan Singh, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, home minister P Chidambaram and national security adviser Shivshankar Menon, among others.
The top military brass, in turn, asked the political leadership to factor China’s ever-expanding transborder, cyber and space-warfare military capabilities into India’s national security matrix.
Even as the military brass warned that China posed “serious challenges”, it said the political establishment should come up with clear-cut national security objectives, which would bring the joint military strategy to meet any external threat.
China’s massive build-up of military infrastructure along the 4,057-km Line of Actual Control, its strategic moves in Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and rapid modernisation of the People’s Liberation Army were red-flagged as worrisome during the conference. This comes in the backdrop of the increasing Chinese footprint in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir, both in terms of projects as well as personnel, according to a report by Times of India.
The Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said India needed to develop border infrastructure, for both land and sea, with “a sense of urgency” because it was “an integral part” of the country’s defence preparedness.
“We want to develop friendly relations with China… However, we cannot lose sight of the fact that China has been improving its military and physical infrastructure,” defence minister said.
“In fact, there has been an increasing assertiveness on the part of China. We are taking all necessary steps to upgrade our capabilities. We have never linked our capabilities to counter any particular nation,” he added.
All the three Service chiefs, Air Chief Marshal P V Naik, Admiral Nirmal Verma and General V K Singh, were of the opinion that China front posed “a long-term threat” rather than Pakistan.
The Indian Air Force had begun to base the Sukhoi-30MKI fighter jets in the North-East as well as upgrade several airstrips and helipads in the region. The Indian Army is raising two new specialised infantry mountain divisions consisting of 35000 troops and an artillery brigade for Arunachal Pradesh, while the Indian Navy is trying to counter the increasing Chinese presence in Indian Ocean Region. India also plans to test its most ambitious ballistic missile, the 5,000-km Agni-V, by early 2011 to bolster its deterrence posture against China.
Both Manmohan Singh and Antony underlined the ongoing endeavour to modernise the Indian armed forces to tackle all exigencies. “When it comes to defence capability, we must be ahead of the technology curve,” said the PM.
