Form of words:
New Delhi: India had anticipated the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, but the speed at which it happened was surprising, Chief of Defense Staff General Bipin Rawat said on Wednesday, giving the first official insight into how the government resolved the Afghan situation.
The CDS said that India was concerned about a possible overflow of terrorist activities from Afghanistan, adding that contingency plans have been put in place.
General Rawat, who was speaking at a symposium organized by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), also talked about the expansion of the Chinese navy and nuclear power, but said that India has no room to compete with its northern neighbor and Pakistan in conventional warfare. has capacity.
“What has happened is something that was expected. Only the timeline has changed. From the Indian point of view, we were expecting Taliban takeover of Afghanistan…,” he said, adding, “Yes, the time lines have certainly surprised us. We were anticipating this to be a few months down the pipeline. ”
Describing how he views the Taliban, the CDS said, “It’s pretty much the same. It’s the same Taliban that was there 20 years ago. News reports and expatriates from there are telling us what kind of Taliban are there.” Is doing activity. Now all that has happened is that the partners have changed.”
He also said that India is concerned that “terrorist activities from Afghanistan may increase in India”.
“To that extent our contingency plan was in place and we were prepared for it,” he said.
ThePrint has previously informed of He Security agencies are concerned that a retreat by Western forces and a consolidation of power by the Taliban will eventually result in an increase in terrorist violence in Kashmir.
India has nuclear triad
Asked about reports of China developing new silos for its nuclear weapons, General Rawat said these are strategic weapons and weapons of deterrence.
“They are not meant to engage nations in war. If a nation is developing large arsenals, developing a new strategy to improve its strategic deterrence, it’s basically making sure you can’t overtake that nation in a jiffy. This is only to enhance their strategic deterrence.”
He said India is concerned about what is happening anywhere in the region.
General Rawat said that both Pakistan and China are nuclear powers.
“It is not only our northern neighbour, the western neighbor also has nuclear weapons. We are surrounded by two neighbors who are armed with tactical weapons,” he said, adding, “Therefore, we are developing our strategy accordingly. Studying this intention of our neighbors, we have gone for a trio. We are also developing and developing our capacity accordingly. We are studying it very carefully.”
General Rawat said that India was traditionally very strong.
“We are quite capable of dealing with our neighbors traditionally. We are confident of tackling both the opponents in the traditional domain,” he said.
(Edited by Arun Prashant)
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