Pakistan, China continue to be potent threats: Army Chief Naravane

Indian Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane on Tuesday said that Pakistan and China continue to be potent threats.

"Pakistan and China continue to be potent threats. Pakistan continues to embrace terrorism. We have zero-tolerance for terror. We reserve our right to respond at a time and place of our own choosing and with precision," he said while addressing the annual press conference ahead of the Army Day.

Naravane added while the Indian Army is hoping for a peaceful solution and they are ready to meet any eventuality.

He further said that the main challenges the Armed Forces faced last year were Covid-19 and the situation at the northern borders.

Referring to the situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and China, he said, "We have maintained a high state of alertness all along the northern borders. We are hoping for a peaceful solution but are ready to meet any eventuality. All logistics are taken care of."

Laying out plans for the future, he said, "A broad roadmap has been prepared to bring in all the new technologies to develop a technology-enabled army to meet challenges of future."

The army chief said that he expected talks with China will lead to an amicable solution to the Himalayan border crisis which escalated after a fight in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed last year.

Naravane said Indian and Chinese troops were holding their positions, although Chinese troops had pulled back from some training areas on the adjacent Tibetan plateau.

"If the talks get prolonged, so be it," he told reporters in an annual briefing on the situation in India's Ladakh region, in the country's northern tip. "We are prepared to hold our ground where we are, for as long as it takes, to achieve our national goals and interests.”

Several rounds of talks have so far made little headway in deflating tensions over the disputed border.

The nuclear-armed neighbours moved thousands of additional troops to the Ladakh area since the clash in June last year, the worst between India and China in more than four decades.

(With inputs from agencies)