Muddy waters of geopolitics require dynamic approach
Indian laws and the Constitution are robust and fully capable of tackling each and every security challenge and there was no immediate need to have a notified National Security Policy for the country, experts opined at a session on ‘National Security Policies in Democratic Countries’ during the Military Literature Festival on Saturday.
Lt Gen Praveen Bakshi, former GOC-in-C, Eastern Command, said the muddy waters of the geo-political set up require a dynamic approach for which concerted and time-bound efforts are required to be taken aggressively for India to have a safe future.
He said the challenge to global supremacy is China, which is cozying up with Russia. Europe, he opined, has found a new identity and is moving away from the reigning power, the US and found a convenient expansion of NATO, provoking Russian President Putin into Ukraine. The Hamas attack on Israel, far away from Ukraine shifted the spotlight to the Middle East and there was also the possibility of China having provoked Iran into launching an attack on Israel, he added.
Lt Gen Surinder Singh, former GOC-in-C, Western Command, said there was no reason to clearly lay out security plans and aims in the public domain in today’s volatile global security architecture.
He said India needs better coordination amongst all its security agencies to tackle emergent threats in an efficient manner. Stating that our responses in a critical situation are narrowing down each time despite spending huge sums on the security set up, he stressed upon the need to audit our security measures and take corrective steps, if required.
Laying out the role of the civil services in ensuring overall defence stability of a nation, former Punjab Special Chief Secretary KBS Sidhu, raised the question of whether a democratic set up like India is a hindrance to having a national security policy as China, Pakistan or some other democratic countries have.
He called for cohesion amongst different arms of the security establishment to avert the tendency of monopolising intelligence sharing, and said that India needs to make itself more resilient by ramping up the security infrastructure.
In a session on the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, Lt Gen KJ Singh, Lt Gen IS Singha and Air Marshal Anil Chopra discussed the historical linkages between these geographical areas and highlighted the existing security challenges along these routes and future prospects and trade benefits.
Emerging alliances can reshape world order: Tewari
Russia–Ukraine has thrown up several alliances that have the potential to reshape the post-Cold War world order, which has very serious implications for India, Member of Parliament from Chandigarh, Manish Tewari said during a session on the implication of the China-Russia-Iran-North Korea (CRINK) axis at the Military Literature Festival here.
He pointed out that Russia and China signed an agreement in 2022 to transform their bilateral relations. Russia also has long standing relations with North Korea, which has sent troops to fight against Ukraine. North Korea has good relations with China, which in turn is close to Pakistan. Russia also has good relations with Iran and courting Pakistan. All these countries are nuclear powers or close to becoming one, making the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty questionable.
He added that with Russia, with whom India has had historic defence relations, getting weakened due to its war economy and Donald Trump coming into power in the US creating uncertainty over American policy, India is really on its own.
Maj Gen Mandeep Singh (retd), a strategic analyst, said that CRINK carries a lot of weight by virtue of being nuclear powers, oil produces and large economies. With China having a significant influence in South America and Africa, there is a sway towards CRINK by some countries.
Trade corridors
In a session on the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, Lt Gen KJ Singh, Lt Gen IS Singha and Air Marshal Anil Chopra discussed the historical linkages between these geographical areas and highlighted the existing security challenges along these routes and future prospects and trade benefits.
Another session focused on turbulence in Bangladesh and Myanmar and its impact on security in the North-East, where the role of insurgent groups and ethnic issues was discussed.
