New Delhi: Due to the legacy factor and in the backdrop of the upcoming China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and recent developments in Afghanistan that have led to further bonhomie in the traditionally close ties between ‘iron brothers’ China and Pakistan, the spectre of a two-front war facing India indeed gets stronger.
But on Tuesday, Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari—five days after he took over as the IAF chief—made it clear that while there was not much to fear from a relationship between two partnering nations, India is well-prepared to face the two-front conflict but the main concern was something else—it was the strong possibility that western military tech knowhow and tactics may land in Chinese hands via Pakistan.
Answering a pointed query, ACM Chaudhari said: “This is purely a relationship between two partnering nations there is nothing to fear from it, the only issue are concerns of dissemination of western techniques and western technology which passes hands from Pakistan to China.”
For decades, Pakistan had partnered the US in the south Asia region and had equipped its military with US and western platforms and assets. The US-Pak military relationship got another fillip with the onset of the war on terror unleashed by the US in Afghanistan since 2001.
The US-led western nations endured Pakistan because of the latter’s indispensability and influence in conflict-torn Afghanistan although Pakistan’s covert support to the Taliban, Al Qaida and the Haqqani terror network was a badly-kept secret.