In the midst of conflicts in the last three decades, global financial crisis and mushrooming of many multilateral organisations, China’s rise has been one of the most defining moments of the 21st century, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen. Bipin Rawat stated on Friday.
The COVID-19 pandemic had turned from a global health crisis to an economic crisis with global ramifications, he noted.
“In recent years, China’s economic and military rise, coupled with competition to increase influence in the region, has attracted a great deal of attention. At present, there are over 120 warships of extra-regional forces deployed in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) in support of various missions. For now, by and large, the region has remained peaceful, albeit under contestation,” he said, virtually addressing the Global Dialogue Security Summit on developments in the Indo-Pacific.
New geopolitical phase
On the post-COVID situation, Gen. Rawat pointed out that the world was entering a new geopolitical phase, likely to be based on nationalism, protectionism, and strategic realignments.
“We are, and we will, continue to witness rise of nationalism, economic patriotism, shift towards buying local brands, need to take back supply chains and shifting of strategic industries within the country’s boundaries even at the cost of increased production costs,” he observed.
The world was moving away from globalisation to deglobalisation regionalism to what was perhaps glocalisation, he said.
On India’s positional advantage in the IOR, the CDS asserted that the peninsular projection into the IOR astride vital sea lanes stretching from the Suez Canal and the Persian Gulf to the Malacca Strait was a “key enabler of our ability to engage freely in maritime trade and commerce.”
“We need to build capabilities to execute operations in response to requests from friendly foreign countries like Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR), search and rescue, protection of vital Sea Lanes of Communication (SLOCS), non-combat evacuation operations and robust protection of our island territories,” he said.
Land security
At the same time, Gen. Rawat also underscored that for a country like India, security of land borders remained the primary concern and, therefore, there was need to develop integrated structures to ensure that modernisation programmes undertaken by the armed forces were based on careful assessment of threats and challenges.
“Today, we are facing increasing security challenges and the best guarantee for peace and stability is to have dissuasive deterrence,” he stressed.
India must maintain strategic autonomy, cooperative relations with extra-regional powers underscored by strong regional linkages that provided “a greater degree of strategic leverage,” he remarked.
Right use of technology
In the military field, technology must become a means of deterrence and not a source of destruction. India’s approach to security, therefore, needed to shift from a “unilateral to multilateral mode,” which mandated increasing training engagements with partner nations in order to fructify a joint response in the future, he added.
Australian High Commissioner to India Barry O’Farrell, asserted that like India, Australia also took a keen interest in the Indo-Pacific region and it was increasingly concerned about security in the region. “We also recognise the important part that Australia has to play in supporting security and rule of law throughout the region. Our partners do the same, so that collectively we benefit from the growth Indo-Pacific offers all of us,” he said.
