China realised they need to be better trained, prepared: CDS General Bipin Rawat
Welcoming the ceasefire agreement between India and Pakistan, Bipin Rawat said that peace along the borders is good for both countries.
The Chinese deployment on the border with India has undergone a change, especially after the recent incidents that happened in Galwan and other areas along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat said on Tuesday.
In an interview with news agency ANI, Rawat said, "They (China) realized that they need to be better trained and better prepared. Their soldiers mainly come from the civilian street. They are enlisted for a short duration."
"They don't have much experience of fighting in these kinds of areas and operating in this kind of terrain," he added.
Welcoming the ceasefire agreement between India and Pakistan, Bipin Rawat said that peace along the borders is good for both countries.
Rawat also underlined that amid unrest in Pakistan and the ongoing tensions with China, the northern, as well as western fronts, are a priority for the Indian defence establishment.
"For the past couple of years, there has been an extensive violation of the ceasefire, where there were not only small arms but high-caliber weapons were used," he said.
"It has caused immense damage to Pakistan army's defensive infrastructure. Their soldiers suffered casualties. Since their soldiers operate from very close to villages, sometimes people living there & their cattle get affected," he added.
Rawat said that in our case, we're well separated from the civilian population. When that happens, pressure also comes from civilians to ceasefire. That could be one of the reasons. Today, Pak's western front is also very active & internal security is not in a very happy situation.
"If you look at all these issues that are causing trouble to Pakistan, it would've dawned on their leadership that the best way forward is to seek peace with India." Rawat said.
"If they seek peace & this is long-lasting, it would be good for both the countries, more so for Pakistan," he said.
Rawat also batted for dedicated theatres for land, water and air defence, but added that the final structure will take shape only after an outline of the initial organisation has been created.
"We will have a theatre looking after the Air Defence, we have always maintained that Air Defence is becoming more and more complex. There are large use of airspace, it is not just aircraft and helicopters that operate in the skies above." Rawat said.
"There is a requirement of one agency to control and ensure that air management doesn't lead to fratricide. Then we have a large border along the coastline and high sea in the Indian Ocean Region, we need to ensure that we have one organisation looking after that," CDS added.
Then, of course, we have to look at the land-based theatres which will be Eastern and Western Theatres... How the final structure will evolve will only happen after we have created the initial organisation and it will take some time, General Bipin Rawat said.
"It's a difficult country, mountainous region, you need specialized training for this, in which our soldiers are very adept because we have a lot of mountain warfare training. We operate in mountains & continuously maintain our presence," CDS said.
Whereas for the Chinese, it's not so. It is part of that training that they are carrying out. We have to keep our guard and keep a watch on all activities of Chinese. In doing so, we have to maintain presence along LAC, Rawat concluded.