Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi
New Delhi, Sep 6: Pakistan will continue to remain a security concern and potential threat to India in the years ahead, former Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan (retd) said on Saturday.
Speaking at the Govind Ballabh Pant Memorial Lecture at Teen Murti Bhawan in New Delhi, Chauhan said Pakistan would remain a security concern “for the times to come”. He was speaking on India’s threats and challenges on the birth anniversary of Govind Ballabh Pant, freedom fighter, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Union Home Minister from 1955 to 1961.
Chauhan explained that a threat is generally immediate, visible and identifiable and requires action to contain it, while a challenge is longer-term, less distinct and constantly evolving. If ignored, he said, a challenge could eventually develop into a threat.
He said India has reduced the scope for conventional military operations with Pakistan through three recent campaigns — Operation Sindoor in 2025, Balakot in 2019 and Uri in 2017. However, terrorism and proxy wars would continue to pose challenges, making it necessary for India to maintain credible deterrence.
Referring to Pakistan’s recent agreement with Saudi Arabia and Türkiye, Chauhan cautioned that the development could lead to overconfidence in Islamabad and possibly result in “some kind of a miscalculation”. He did not name the trilateral agreement, known as the Mecca Pact, signed on August 7.
“We got to be careful about that,” he said.
Chauhan described China as a different and more comprehensive long-term challenge. He said the boundary dispute remains unresolved, with no mutually agreed definition of the Line of Actual Control, or LAC.
Differences in perceptions along the LAC, coupled with infrastructure development on both sides, have increased the possibility of friction, he said, stressing that the Indian armed forces must remain vigilant and agile.
Chauhan welcomed recent efforts to strengthen India-China military communication through additional hotlines and corps commander-level talks. At the same time, he said India’s relationship with China could not be viewed solely through the lens of the boundary dispute.
“Safeguarding national security today means simultaneous engagements,” he said.
The former CDS said the rapidly changing global security environment and the uncertainty surrounding it currently represent India’s biggest national security challenge. The traditional balance of power has weakened, while the structures of a new global order have yet to fully emerge.
He said the world could remain in a period of disorder for some time, with countries increasingly forming issue-based and transactional partnerships rather than maintaining permanent alliances.
“It is increasingly difficult to place countries into permanent categories of friends and adversaries,” Chauhan said, noting that a country could be a security partner on one front while taking a different position on another.
He also warned that military power was increasingly being used “not as a last resort but as a first instrument of state policy”.
Govind Ballabh Pant’s son, K C Pant, served as India’s Defence Minister from 1987 to 1989, during which a task force was established to examine the country’s national security architecture.