IAF chief mulls Beijing's motives; 'India-China conflict doesn't suit their grand plans'

Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria on Tuesday said any serious conflict with India does not suit China's global aspirations and "grand plans" and the trigger for the Ladakh face-off could be the result of a variety of reasons including a "military-dominated misadventure" that escalated following the rapid trust deficit faced by the neighbouring country due to the Coronavirus pandemic. 

The Indian Air Force Chief was addressing a webinar on 'National Security Challenges and Air Power' organised by Vivekanand International Foundation. He said that China resorted to heavy deployment of radars, surface-to-air and surface-to-surface missiles as well as other air assets to support its army in view of the border standoff in eastern Ladakh but at the same time he asserted that India took every action required to deal with the situation.

'Any serious Indo-China conflict not good for China'

According to PTI, Air Chief Marshal Bhadauria said China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) has been focusing on developing capabilities to counter the global dominance of the US and it could lead to security implications for India.

The IAF Chief cited a number of possible reasons for China to have triggered the eastern Ladakh border stand-off that included efforts to synergise its new military structure and technology in a war-like scenario to engage with India in the border talks from a new position. The border stand-off between India and China erupted in eastern Ladakh in early May.

"The important question for all of us is - any serious Indo-China conflict is not good for China. If Chinese aspirations are global, then it does not suit their grand plans. Then what could be the possible Chinese objective for their actions in the North? This is important to understand," he said.

"Was it simply military signalling, was it domination efforts focused on the region with adequate control to escalate...was it deployment and training of their western theatre forces in a real war-like scenario wherein the Galwan incident was an overreach or was it to fine-tune and enhance the military technologies and fill their gaps to get their forces to synergise with the new structures and technologies," he said.

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The Air Chief Marshal further said, "In any case, what has actually happened is all of the above irrespective of what was the starting objective. It could also possibly be a totally military-dominated misadventure that escalated given the rapid trust-deficit post-COVID-19".

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'Pakistan has become a pawn in Chinese policy'

The IAF chief also said that Pakistan has become a pawn in the Chinese policy and its military dependence on China would increase further in view of the debt trap due to the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.  Air Chief Marshal Bhadauria said India's "most important" national security challenge is to understand China, its "possible game plan" and the deepening and evolving Sino-Pak relationship.

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"Pakistan has increasingly become a pawn in Chinese policy. Under an increasing CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor) related debt trap, we are going to witness further military dependencies in the future," he said. "The US exit from Afghanistan has opened increased options for China in the region -- both direct and through Pakistan -- allowing it a possible entry into Central Asia, a region that they have been eyeing for long," the IAF chief added.

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(With agency inputs)