The Army is "rebalancing" its preparedness, General MM Naravane said. (File)
Army Chief General MM Naravane on Saturday said the Army is taking a raft of measures including moving advanced weapons and developing infrastructure as part of its approach of "rebalancing" operational preparedness for combating any security challenge along the frontier with China.
Addressing a press conference on the eve of Army Day, General Naravane also said the long-pending hotline between the two militaries will be set up soon as differences over it have been resolved.
"We have to balance out our preparation along the northern border. We are going in for lot of capacity-building, laying roads to forward areas, creating storage for ammunition and moving advanced weapon systems to our eastern side," he said.
Asked about the situation at Siachen glacier, General Naravane said Indian forces should not lose sight as threat of collusion between China and Pakistan in the area is maximum.
"We need to hold on to it. This can take place at any level, but Siachen and Shaksgam Valley are the places where the territory of these two countries meets," the Army Chief said.
General Naravane said the Indian Army is now prepared for any challenge along the frontier with China as result of "rebalancing" its preparedness.
"At one point of time, the focus was more towards the western front (Pakistan). We think, now, that both western and northern fronts are equally important and it is in that context, rebalancing is taking place," he said.
Asked how prepared the Army is to deal with a two-front war involving Pakistan and China simultaneously, he said a primary front and a secondary front would be identified.
He said bulk of the resources would be deployed on the primary front and an approach of deterrent posture would be adopted to deal with the secondary front.
On incidents of transgressions by Chinese Army, General Naravane said such issues are being addressed under broad framework of strategic guidelines given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping.