New Delhi:
Vying Pakistan and China to be "major irritants" to India's security, Army Chief General VK Singh on Friday said the nation should be ready with "substantial" conventional war capability in a nuclear backdrop.
Singh, who inaugurated an Army seminar here, said the threats from Pakistan were caused by its governance problems and support to terror outfits, while the challenge from China was in the form of its military capabilities.
However, IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal P V Naik, who was asked about Singh's comments at another function, said he was not willing to be drawn into the debate on which country was the biggest threat to India's security.
Naik said the country's military modernisation should be capability-specific and not adversary-specific, lest it led to an arms race in the region.
"We have two major irritants. One, there is a problem of governance in Pakistan where terror outfits receive support and where internal situation is not very good. And, therefore, it can have a fallout in terms of how these things impact India.
"Till the time the terrorist infrastructure remains intact on the other side, we have something to worry," Singh said at the seminar on 'Indian Army: Emerging Roles and Tasks' organised by Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS), an Army-sponsored think-tank.
Referring to the threat posed by China, which was "rising both economically and militarily," the Army Chief said India needed to keep a watchful eye on the military intentions of the eastern neighbour.
"Although we have a very stable border, yet we have a border dispute. And, therefore, the intentions need to be looked at along with this additional capability that is coming out," he said.
An all-out conventional war with China was "not not certain", but skirmishes were "certainly possible," he added.
"We must have a substantial conventional war-fighting capabilities with the ability to fight in a nuclear scenario," he stressed.
The Army chief said, China's military modernization "impacts the way we will task our army and the role that we will give to it so that it can do the task that the nation wants. So, with this, let's also see what are some of the threats that we face or the challenges that we have".
He, however, noted that India had no "extra-territorial ambitions."
Naik, meanwhile, said the country should have long-term military development plans that are capability-specific and not country or threat specific.
"We (armed forces' modernisation) have to be capability specific... We have realised that being country-specific or threat-specific will lead us into an arms race," he said at a CII event.
Singh and Naik's comments come a fortnight after Defence Minister A K Antony had said China's "military assertiveness" was a matter of concern and asked the armed forces to remain vigilant to counter any threat.
Naik said the military of any country looked at the entire security environment taking into account all factors affecting its growth and hence could not have country-specific military plans.
"The plans have to be capability-specific. You have to decide the particular capability that we should have in 2022, because the country would need it, and you continue developing your forces on those lines," he said.