New Delhi, Sep 17(Agency) Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat on Wednesday said the world is once again moving towards being bi-polar or multi-polar, adding that India needs to look at its strategy to handle its two aggressive neighbours – China and Pakistan. Speaking at an event in the national capital, the CDS called for integration not just among the forces, but also with the other ministries and departments, stressing that a war is fought by a nation, and not the defence forces along. He said that the world, which became unipolar after the disintegration of USSR, is now again moving towards being multi-polar. “We are now heading back to a bi-polar or multi-polar world, if that is good or bad only time will tell,” he said. “What we are certainly seeing is more aggression on the part of nations, especially China which is trying to make its presence felt. So it is for us to see our strategy, how we are going to deal with our neighbours which are aggressive – Pakistan on the western front and China on the north,” CDS General Bipin Rawat said.
“After the disintegration of Soviet Union, people started believing it will be a uni-polar world, and the US will reign over the world for years. People thought it will be a good mechanism because US is a capitalist democracy,” Rawat said. He said peace was expected in the unipolar world, however, there were more wars that happened. “At one stage people though a unipolar world is good US being a democratic power. They will ensure there is democracy, peace and happiness. But you can see under the unipolar world there were more wars that were being fought,” he said. He also said that a kind of “jointmanship” was being witnessed between the Islamic and Sinic cultures. “We are seeing some kind of jointmanship between the Sinic and the Islamic civilisations. They (China) are now making friends with Iran, they have moved towards Turkey… they will step in Afghanistan in times to come,” he said. The Chief of Defence Staff said India needed to look at its own strategy, and stressed on integration not just of the forces, but also of the civilian deparments and ministries. “We need to start looking at transformation for the betterment, and for ensuring that the national security architecture is capable of dealing with the kind of threats we are seeing, threats at the border, and internal security threats.
To do this, you need integration among all security forces,” he said. “There is need for ensuring integration not just within the forces and paramilitary, but also within the civilan organisations that we have,” he said. He said the creation of Department of Military Affairs (DMA), the department in charge of military matters within the Indian Ministry of Defence, is a step in that direction. “It is not just the army, but nation that go to war. We should work on this premise that nations go to war and nations must work together,” he said. The CDS’ comments come in the backdrop of tension along the India-China border, and takeover of Afghanistan by Taliban. India has maintained it is monitoring the situation and modifying its strategy to deal with the challenge in Afghanistan.