General NS Raja Subramani, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), said India’s armed forces remain prepared to “respond quickly, decisively, and ensure that when we act, we act in a manner that the appropriate lessons are conveyed”, when asked about the threat from Pakistan at the NDTV Defence Summit on Sunday.
We achieved our objectives and ensured that we exited the conflict when our objectives were met.
“As far as Pakistan is concerned, what I would like to focus on is, we are not letting our guard down,” Subramani said. “And the best way of deterring any threats or any misadventure by our adversaries is to ensure that we are fully prepared,” he added, in a session moderated by NDTV Editor-in-Chief Rahul Kanwal, along with Shiv Aroor and Aditya Raj Kaul. The CDS was speaking a day after India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar termed Pakistan a “serial practitioner of terrorism” at the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly. On Operation Sindoor, the CDS said, “We are all aware that it was an operation which was executed very precisely [with] very clear political directions to the military. He was also asked about the defence pact involving Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey, to which he simply said alliances in the region were being made based on “perceived interests”. “But alliances have to survive the test of time, and they also have to survive when strain comes in, and various interests collide,” he said.
To a question on the Kashmir Valley situation, he said, “If today the security situation is stable, then I think the credit goes to a whole-of-government approach and the integration between the armed forces, the police forces, the central armed police forces and our intelligence apparatus.”
