By Express News Service
BENGALURU: In the background of rapidly evolving relations among nations in India’s neighbourhood, Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari on Sunday, October 24, 2021, said India’s policy on geopolitical alignment has stood the country in good stead, but it cannot become dogma, and needs to be continuously reexamined and reevaluated with the changing environment.
At the concluding ceremony of the Swarnim Vijay Divas conclave to commemorate the golden jubilee of the India-Pakistan war in 1971, the Indian Air Force chief, citing discussions during the three-day meet attended by senior officers from IAF, Army, Navy, Ministry of External Affairs and strategic experts, said the world order has changed from bipolar to unipolar, to multipolar one.
There cannot be a ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution, which is why India’s geostrategic outlook needs to be refined accordingly, he pointed out. “Our vibrant diversity as a nation gives us an inherent flexibility and we must leverage this in making connections across the region,” he said.
He emphasised the need to be future-ready to meet dynamic changes in the nature and scope of modern warfare along with the need to synergise planning processes and objectives to increment the net national power.
‘No military alliance will fix all issues’
Earlier, speaking on “Geopolitical lessons and impact of 1971 War,” former National Security Advisor (NSA) and former Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon said China is only an economic power and the US is the only country that can project military power anywhere it wants around the globe.
“China is still a regional military power and that, too, in a crowded region with India, Japan, Russia and Korea. China wants to be number one and the US wants to prevent its rise,” he said. As China turns more hostile, India’s relationship with US has grown, signing several defence agreements, besides informally working with a whole coalition of countries on China’s periphery, Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore, Australia and others.
“What I see is a natural balancing to a state of disorder in a world that is in disarray. There is no order. We saw the response to Covid. What does G20, UN, WHO or anybody do? Each one takes care of itself,” he said, emphasising the need for India to be militarily self-reliant and strong. India is a member of the Quad along with US, Australia and Japan.
