Forgot about Ladakh? No improvement in stand-off since months, General Bipin Rawat says China will face wrath

Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat warned today that a "larger conflict" with China cannot be ruled out if border confrontations and unprovoked military actions spiraled. General Rawat also said China and Pakistan acting in collusion meant an omnipresent danger of regional instability with potential for escalation.

“In the overall security calculus, border confrontation, transgressions and unprovoked tactical military actions spiralling into a larger conflict cannot be discounted,” Rawat said at an event organised to mark the diamond jubilee celebrations of the National Defence College.

CDS Rawat also added that the China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) is facing "unanticipated consequences" for its misadventure in eastern Ladakh because of the "firm and strong" responses by the Indian armed forces.

India and China have been caught in a tense military standoff along their Himalayan border since May.

The economic slowdown due to the pandemic had made China "repressive at home but aggressive abroad", he said, as was evident with its posturing in the South China Sea, east China Sea and the Taiwan Straits. ''In the coming years, we are likely to witness aggressive pursuit of hegemonic interests by China manifesting through economic exploitation of weaker nations, military modernisation and increased contestation with the West.''

Rawat warned of a collusive threat from China and Pakistan. He said there was constant friction with the two nuclear-armed neighbours with whom India has fought wars and their acting in collusion posed an “omnipresent danger of regional strategic instability with the potential for escalation.”

(With inputs from PTI)