India values its emerging relationship with the U.S. and cherishes its traditional relationship with Russia, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen. Bipin Rawat said on Saturday while stating that we are witnessing seismic changes in geopolitics shaped by a “nation first approach and geo-economics”.
“With both these powers, we share a mature and robust defence and security framework,” he said at a webinar. In the emerging security paradigm, Gen. Rawat said India’s security “would be maintained not, as hitherto, on the International Border (IB), Line of Control (LoC) or the Line of Actual Control (LAC) alone,” but in the strategic space of the “extended neighbourhood” and the “strategic frontier”.
On the ongoing military modernisation, Gen. Rawat said keeping in mind the macro-economic parameters and socio-economic requirements, “we have to work through the budgetary constraints by finding the best solutions through new acquisitions and optimisation or upgradation of legacy systems”.
“The creation of the Department of Military Affairs (DMA) headed by the CDS, having a central staffing scheme along with amendments to Government of India business rules, in effect, admits the military into the central edifice of the government,” Gen. Rawat said. Robust interaction between the CDS, Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC) and political executive the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) must ensure single-point military advice, strategic direction and resource optimisation.
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