India has stood firm along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) against China and has proved that it will not get pushed, Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat said on Thursday.
Speaking at the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi, General Rawat said that India stood firm in preventing a change of status quo on the LAC and has gathered international support.
“India has stood firm on the northern borders, and we have proven that we will not get pushed. In whatever we have been able to achieve in standing firm, in preventing a change of status quo, we have been able to gather world support,” he said, adding: “The international community has come forward to say that there is an international-based rules order and every nation must follow.”
Gen Rawat was taking part in a discussion on “Future of Conflict: How Will Democracies Respond?” The panelists were asked why is China picking a fight with India and why now? On this, Gen Rawat said that “they (China) were trying to get into a limited conflict”, thinking that they were “superior in technologies”.
He said that the situation is changing globally and “geopolitics coupled with the geo-economics is indeed seeking to reshape the rules that govern the world order”. He said there are some nations that follow the international order “while others depend on their own law”.
“They make their own rules and regulations, try and change the status quo. These kinds of things do lead to a conflict situation, and that is what we are witnessing on our northern borders,” he said, referring to China.
The CDS said that China thought India will succumb to its pressure because of their technological advances. “They have tried to ensure that they can change the status quo by the use of disruptive technology, without using force. As of now they have not used force. They thought that India as a nation will succumb to the pressures that they are putting on us, because of the tech advances that they have,” he said.
India and China have been in a military standoff for almost a year along the LAC in eastern Ladakh.
