The remarks by army chief come amid the disengagement process between Indian and Chinese armies in Pangong Tso areas in eastern Ladakh.
China’s rising footprints in India’s neighbourhood and its attempts to unilaterally alter the status quo along disputed borders have created an environment of “confrontation and mutual distrust”, Chief of Army Staff Gen MM Naravane said on Friday.
“Sino-US” rivalry has created regional imbalances and instability, he said in his address at a seminar.
The regional security environment is characterised by the Chinese “belligerence” in the Indo-Pacific, its hostility towards weaker nations and its relentless drive to create regional dependencies through initiatives like the Belt and Road Initiative, Gen MM Naravane observed.
“The rising footprints of China in India’s neighbourhood and its attempts to unilaterally alter the status-quo along our disputed borders have created an environment of confrontation and mutual distrust,” the army chief said.
The remarks by army chief come amid the disengagement process between Indian and Chinese armies in Pangong Tso areas in eastern Ladakh where the two sides have been locked in a nine-month standoff.
Gen Naravane, referring to geo-political developments in the region, talked about increasing Chinese investment in Nepal and the period of political volatility that the country was going through.
The Army chief also stressed unleashing the potential of the Northeastern region as part of measures to balance the influence of China.
“Regional and internal connectivity is acutely linked to security. It is central to unleashing the potential of the Northeast and balancing the influence of China. With the failure to deliver on promises, the delivery deficit has plagued our efforts at improving regional connectivity. The Kaladan multimodal transport project and the trilateral highway have both seen cost and time overruns,” Gen Naravane said.
The army chief, on the internal front, said infrastructure development has been marred by numerous challenges, adding involvement of multiple agencies and varied sources of funds coupled with environmental factors remain a major stumbling block.
“There is a need for an apex body to coordinate multi-agency efforts,” Gen Naravane said.
He said that there has been encouraging improvement in the internal security situation in the Northeast.
“As you can see, the states of Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya and large parts of Assam are practically free from insurgency. The violence levels have also significantly gone down over the years,” he said.
“You would often hear the need to integrate the North East with mainland India. The perception that India is the mainland and the North East must align itself to the ways of the mainland, in itself is flawed and contemptuous,” the Army Chief added.
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