Summary ACM Raha said that Chinese growing influence in the region is swaying its way into India.
NEW DELHI (Web Desk) - Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha, India’s Chief of Air Staff has said that China and Naxalites pose a great security threat to Indian Air Force (IAF), reported The Indian Express.
While speaking on the occasion of 12th Subroto Mukerjee Seminar at Centre for Air Power Studies, ACM Raha said that Chinese growing influence in the region is swaying its way into India’s foreign and defence policies.
“China has increased its economic and military ties with all our neighbours. Rapid infrastructure development is taking place in the TAR (Tibet Autonomous Region). World’s highest airfield at Daocheng Yading, highest railway line from Xiniang, Qinghai province to TAR capital, development of the Gwadar port and Economic corridor through Azad Kashmir and Pakistan, development of roads in TAR up to Indian border and increasing economic and military ties with Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar are all strategic moves by China to contain India,” he said.
Stressing upon Beijing’s other regional moves, Raha added that “China has been making sustained efforts to make its presence felt in the IOR (Indian Ocean Region), including dispatch of submarines in the name of Piracy control, with a strange logic.”
“Incidents of border stand-off in the North, issuance of paper visa to the residents of Arunachal Pradesh (AP) and claiming of Aksai Chin and part of AP as part of China have diluted the agreement of five principles, Panchsheel signed way back in 1954,” he criticized.
Noting that the rise of China, India and ASEAN has shifted the global economic centre of gravity and hence, the strategic centre of gravity to the Asia Pacific Region, ACM Raha said that India faced a unique challenge – it has the dual task of physical security of the borders and maintaining harmonious relations with its neighbours.
While talking about Pakistan, Raha said: “Despite the grim internal situation, Pakistan has managed to strike a balance in its relations with China and USA. It has steadily built up its nuclear and ballistic missile capability with covert assistance from China and North Korea while continuing to receive monetary support and conventional weapons and aircraft from both USA as well as China."
Explaining the internal security challenges, he said that it is becoming increasingly difficult to separate the internal threats to security from the external ones.
