India faces the threat of a two-front war: General Bipin Rawat

NEW DELHI: India faces the threat of coordinated action along its northern and western fronts, Chief of Defence Staff General BipinRawat said on Thursday amid the ongoing border standoff with China.

Talking about China, General Rawat said that despite China's aggressive misadventures, India has adopted adequate measures to control and stop these misadventures. "We want peace and tranquillity across our borders. Of late, we have been seeing some aggressive actions by China but we are capable of handling these. Our tri-services are capable of dealing with threats along our frontiers," General Rawat said at the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum.

General Rawat said the Indian armed forces will have to be prepared to meet the immediate crisis and concurrently prepare for future.

He also said that China's economic cooperation with Pakistan in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir along with continued military and diplomatic support mandates high levels of preparedness by India.

He said that India has devised a strategy to deal with the primary front, depending on which front India has to address. "We have conceptualised a strategy to deal with it on both our borders," General Rawat said.

On Pakistan, the CDS said it has been launching a proxy war, sponsoring training, arming and equipping terrorists on Indian soil. "They keep infiltrating into Jammu and Kashmir. They are also trying to expand terrorism into other regions of our country," General Rawat said.

Rawat said that the Indian government is also committed to boost the infrastructure of the armed forces. A "We are engaging in bilateral exercises with most nations in the region... it includes China," said the CDS. "India carried out army to army exercises with China and now we don't know about in future," he added.

General Rawat called the U.S.-Australia-Japan-India Quad a good arrangement to ensure complete freedom of navigation. "We want free trade and free movement... We want the quad to become a system," he said.

India and China have been engaged in a four-month-long standoff at the Line of Actual Control. Despite several levels of dialogue, there hasn't been any breakthrough and the deadlock continues. (IANS) 

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