World will witness an assertive China but Russia’s importance will wane: CDS General Anil Chauhan

“China presently occupies a place in a geo-economic world order. It is the fastest growing economy and its economic heft is now visible in the political and the diplomatic domain also. This is also visible in their military prowess also. We will see a more assertive China in times to come,” he said.

General Chauhan said that Indo-Pacific was fast emerging as a centre for future contestation, adding that India’s armed forces required transformative change given the geo-political changes. “Armed forces are cognisant of the changes happening around them. We adapted to mountain divisions after the 1962 war. As far as IAF is concerned, they have graduated into network-centric warfare and the navy is concerned that we have seen mission-based deployment and that’s why the response of the naval forces in the Indian Ocean region is slightly faster. Armed forces are evolving,” he added.

General Chauhan said the successful conduct of the G20 summit indicated that India would emerge as the leader of the Global South. “Technology is changing the domain of warfare. Space is one such domain. Information warfare is something we fight in the cognitive domain,” he added.

The chief of defence staff also laid emphasis on the creation of theatre commands, which will replace the functional commands, thereby giving a single commander in a single zone authority over all assets of the three armed forces. The tri-services will then work as a single entity looking after security issues in a specific geographical territory under a single operational commander.

“The creation of theatre commands will happen. The process of theaterisation should be based on consensus as far as possible. There must be no ambiguity in the command-and-control structure,” he said.