Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat on Monday asserted that the defence services were prepared to take on any challenge, as he said it was very difficult to predict if a war scenario with Pakistan would emerge and downplayed the Chinese matrix in the Indian Ocean Region.
Inducting the first Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter squadron in south India at the Air Force Station here, seen as a gamechanger in guarding the strategically important IOR, the top general said all the three services were tasked to prepare for any option that may emerge.
He was responding to a question about any possibility of a war emerging between India and Pakistan.
"...It is very difficult to predict a scenario. But, we are always prepared for any task that may be assigned to us," Gen Rawat told reporters.
Asked about how Chinese presence in the Indian Ocean posed a threat to India, he said every nation looked at its security from a strategic perspective.
While the squadron here is expected to give a thrust to India's capabilities for dominance especially in the IOR, China's presence in the same region is on the rise.
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The Dragon nation already has a military base at the strategically located Djibouti at the horn of Africa, its first in a foreign nation, and it is also looking at expanding its presence.
"Every nation looks at its security from a strategic perspective.
Oceans are meant for freedom of navigation. And therefore wherever you find any country which has interest in a particular area, it will attempt to come to that area to dominate the area more so for the freedom of navigation," he told reporters.
Further, pointing to aspects like protection of trade in sea routes by any country, he said: "Therefore, I don't think we should look at it particularly from that perspective (a pointer to perceived threat from China)."
On how strong was the Army, Rawat said "have confidence in armed forces, they will never let you down. They have never let you down in the past and they will never let you down in the future."
"...We know that in the future unmanned systems will be used and we should also be capable of protecting our air space by defending our own systems through technology."