Date:28/06/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/06/28/stories/2009062853420800.htm

National

“India was never a threat to Pakistan”

Special Correspondent

There is no question of any threat from China
Steps being taken to address shortage of Army officers

HYDERABAD: The Chief of Army Staff, General Deepak Kapoor, has asked Pakistan to remove the perception that it faced a threat from India.

“India was never a threat to Pakistan. It is their [Pakistan’s] own perception which they have to remove. India would be happy if Pakistan fights terrorists on its western border with Afghanistan and also on the eastern side,” Gen. Kapoor told journalists on the sidelines of the combined graduation parade (CGP) at the Air Force Academy at Dundigal here on Saturday.

He commissioned 173 flight cadets from all branches of Indian Air Force, except technical and medical, who underwent basic and professional training at various training establishments of IAF. The cadets comprised 106 pilots, including two women.

The Army chief said India had deployed adequate troops along the Pakistan border to safeguard the country’s territorial integrity and also to check infiltration.

Answering a question on relations with China, Gen. Kapoor said India enjoyed reasonably good relations with that country. There was no question of any kind of threat from China though both countries had an unsettled boundary dispute. Nonetheless, a mechanism was in place to settle the dispute as both countries had appointed high-ranking officials on the job. He hoped that the issue would be resolved.

He agreed there was a shortage of officers in the Army and said steps were initiated to improve the situation.

Addressing the parade earlier, Gen. Kapoor said air power had revolutionised warfare and it had itself undergone profound changes with ever-accelerating advances in technology. The present decade was likely to see even more dramatic changes in weapons technology that might fundamentally alter the very nature of warfare.