Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan on Friday outlined six key national security challenges confronting India as he stressed that the country must be prepared for future wars that will not be limited to land, air and sea.
Speaking in Gorakhpur, General Chauhan noted India’s challenges are “not momentary but persistent,” demanding constant preparedness and strategic cohesion. He identified the unresolved border dispute with China as India’s "biggest challenge".
The second challenge, he said, stems from Pakistan’s proxy war strategy of "bleeding India by a thousand cuts". The third challenge lies in regional instability, with almost all neighbouring countries grappling with social, political and economic turbulence, creating openings for external interference.
The fourth challenge is the changing nature of warfare, which now extends to space and cyberspace and other domains. “Future wars will be multi-domain, and we must achieve cohesion across all forces,” he stressed.
General Chauhan called Pakistan and China’s nuclear capabilities the fifth challenge, complicating the calculus of conventional warfare. The sixth challenge, he added, is technological, as wars are becoming "more intelligent" with rapid advancements in military tech.
Referring to Operation Sindoor, General Chauhan revealed that the armed forces were granted "full operational freedom" during the mission. "The aim was not revenge, but to draw a red line of our patience," he said, highlighting the crucial role played by the National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval in target selection, de-escalation and diplomacy.
His comments assume significance, days after PM Modi met Chinese President Xi Jinping at the SCO summit in China. In the last few months, India and China have witnessed a smoothening of ties, including the last October agreement reached between the two giant neighbours to reduce border tensions, following a meeting between PM Modi and President Xi at the BRICS Summit in Russia's Kazan.
Despite the relative smoothing of Indo-China ties, the CDS said that the border issue with China remains a huge challenge, reflecting the tensions between the two at the LAC.