Indian army summit weighs up Pakistan, China threat

In this file photo, Indian troops deployed along the Line of Control. (AFP)

• Naturally the army commanders will focus on threat perceptions, scenarios, and capabilities with respect to China and Pakistan
• While India’s conflicts with Pakistan are well documented, the South Asian nation has faced growing problems with China as well

NEW DELHI: A major Indian army summit starting this week will focus on likely threats from nuclear-armed arch-rivals Pakistan and China, experts said on Monday.
Among topics to be discussed at the six-day conference are management of security infrastructure, future security threats, and how to ramp up India’s “combat edge over potential adversaries,” army spokesman Col. Aman Anand said.
Other issues include speeding up infrastructure development to increase capacity along the country’s northern border, a review of strategic railway lines, and optimizing the budget to make up for the “critical deficiency in ammunition,” Anand said.
Experts expect much of the talks to focus on Pakistan and China, which flank India on its western and eastern borders, respectively.
Referring to China and Pakistan as India’s “two primary external conventional military threats,” Sharad Joshi, assistant professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California, said the two neighbors were politically and militarily aligned and had a common enemy in India.
“Naturally the army commanders will focus on threat perceptions, scenarios, and capabilities with respect to China and Pakistan and will keep in mind a simultaneous two-front conflict with them,” he said.
The two-front conflict is clearly on the mind of India’s armed forces. Last week, the country’s air force started its biggest-ever combat exercise, which also focused on preparations for a simultaneous threat from Pakistan and China.
The two-week-long exercise, which will run day and night, is being carried out in two phases. The first has been on the western side, along the border with Pakistan. The second phase, which runs this week, will be in the north and will include operations that involve landing in high-altitude areas, reportedly aiming at Chinese defenses on the Tibet front.
While India’s conflicts with Pakistan are well documented, the South Asian nation has faced growing problems with China as well.
Last year, India and China were locked in a face-off over the Doklam plateau, an area of less than a 100 square kilometers that is disputed between China and Bhutan.
That dispute began when Chinese troops attempted to build a road in the area. India, at Bhutan’s request, sent in troops to stop the Chinese. The standoff lasted almost three months.
More recently, China sold Pakistan a highly sophisticated, large-scale powerful optical tracking and measurement system, making it the first country in the Indian subcontinent to acquire a missile capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads and one that can overwhelm a missile defense system. The Chinese team spent about three months in Pakistan to assemble the system and train Pakistani officers.
News of the sale came on the heels of India testing its Agni-V intercontinental ballistic missile, which can strike almost all of China. Experts agreed that the “leak” of the sale of the tracking equipment was China’s message to India that it had ways to counter the Agni-V.
The army’s biannual conference is being chaired by the army chief Gen. Bipin Rawat and will be inaugurated by the junior defense minister Subhash Ramrao Bhamre.