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Former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan has said that India and China are two major Asian powers, large economies, and civilizational states and the future of Asia will depend substantially on how the countries manage their simultaneous rise.
Addressing an event on the 139th birth anniversary of Bharat Ratna Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant, General Chauhan on Saturday talked briefly of the opportunities and challenges in the India-China relationship. Our relationship with China cannot be held hostage only to boundary issues. China and India are two major Asian powers, large economies, and civilizational states. Again, this is important. They cooperate in some forms, compete for influence and markets, and hold differing views on aspects of regional and global order, he said. So there's a need to engage the Chinese on this. That's what we're doing as part of SCO and now as part of BRICS. And the future of Asia, I believe, will depend substantially on how India and China manage their simultaneous rise, he added. Chauhan also said Pakistan will continue to remain a major security concern for India, citing cross-border terrorism. "India's external threat environment is shared by a large number of factors across all borders. We have living and nuclearised kind of cross-border terrorism. Pakistan will remain, I think, a major security concern trying to come. The existing nuclear weapons have created a view of static stability at the highest level, and this is what has induced instability at the lowest level. Classically known as the stability paradox," he said. "The idea of Pakistan helping to reduce space for conventional operations and expand the space for sub-conventional operations has been their strategy," he added. On emerging challenges, General Chauhan said geopolitical uncertainty was among the biggest concerns for global security. "I think the first and the biggest challenge before us is this lowering of geopolitical uncertainty, which provides global security. The old balances have weakened while the structures of a new order are emerging. We should be prepared for all imaginative self-reliance, reduced vulnerability, diversified independence and reduced dependence," he said. (ANI)
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