India must be prepared for two-front war: Army chief

Army chief General Bipin Rawat said on Wednesday that India should be prepared for a two-front war.

He was talking about China and Pakistan.

"As far as northern adversary is concerned, the flexing of muscle has started. The salami slicing, taking over territory in a very gradual manner, testing our limits of threshold is something we have to be wary about and remain prepared for situations emerging which could gradually emerge into conflict," PTI reported him as saying.

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By "salami slicing", he meant the piece-by-piece taking over of territory.

India's "northern adversary" would be China.

Rawat was speaking at a seminar organised by the Centre for Land Warfare Studies in Delhi.

"As far as our western adversary is considered, we don't see any scope of reconciliation, because their military, the polity, and the people in that nation have been made to believe that there is an adversary, India, which is all out to break their nation into pieces," PTI reported him as saying.

The "western adversary" would be Pakistan.

This is not the first time Rawat has talked about a two-front war.

Interestingly, India and China have just wound down their 73-day-long standoff in the Doklam area near the Bhutan-China-India trijunction.

And Rawat's comments come just a day after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Xinping met on the sidelines of the just-concluded BRICS summit in Xiamen, China.

The two leaders had talked about the need to maintain the peace along the border of the two countries.

Rawat also said the nuclear deterrence of the three countries might not be enough to stop them from going to war.

"Nuclear weapons are weapons of deterrence. Yes, they are. But to say that they can deter war or they will not allow nations to go to war, in our context that may also not be true," PTI reported him as saying.