China aims to replace US as global net security provider, says Army chief

PTI

Pune, March 28

Chief of Army Staff General Manoj Pande has said transgressions remain the potential trigger for escalations along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China and asserted India has adequate reserves and was prepared to deal with any contingency.

Speaking at an event here, he said China wants to replace the United States as a global net security provider and cited Beijing's involvement in brokering recent peace talks between arch-rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran and putting forth a peace plan to end the 13-month-long Russia-Ukraine war.

The Army chief said China has accrued significant capacities for force mobilisation, application, and sustenance of military operations and maintained that the long-pending boundary issue cannot be divorced from bilateral relations between the two Asian giants.

General Pande said the Chinese attempts to carry out transgressions across the LAC in violations of past agreements/protocols remained a matter of concern for India, but the Army's preparedness remained of a high order, the comments coming in the backdrop of the border standoff in eastern Ladakh since May 2020.

He was speaking at the 2nd Strategic Dialogue on 'Rise of China and its Implications for the World', organised by the Savitribai Phule Pune University and the New Delhi-based Centre for China Analysis and Strategy.