India Won't Lower Guard on Pakistan or China, CDS Subramani Says

India's senior-most military officer has said the armed forces remain fully prepared to defend the country's territorial sovereignty, describing the situation along the border with China as stable while making clear that vigilance against Pakistan continues.

Chief of Defence Staff General NS Raja Subramani was speaking at the NDTV Defence Summit in a wide-ranging conversation that covered integrated theatre commands, artificial intelligence and shifting alignments in West Asia.

China border stable

On the China frontier, the CDS pointed to recent interactions between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping, including their meeting at the BRICS summit this month, as well as regular contacts between the two armies at the ground level. He said the border situation currently gives no cause for concern, while stressing that safeguarding the frontiers remains the armed forces' core mission and that adequate measures are in place.

No let-up on Pakistan

Turning to Pakistan, General Subramani said India is not letting its guard down. He described it as his responsibility to analyse threats, take cognisance of them and keep defence preparedness at a high order, adding that the most effective deterrent is a military ready to respond quickly and decisively so that adversaries draw the appropriate lessons.

On the security situation in the Kashmir valley, he said it remains stable, crediting a whole-of-government approach and close coordination among the armed forces, police, central armed police forces and intelligence agencies. Sustained pressure has pushed terrorist numbers down, he said, preventing attacks on forces and citizens.

Operation Sindoor as a template

General Subramani called Operation Sindoor — India's response to the terror attack in Pahalgam — a classic example of the three services planning and fighting together as one to achieve joint objectives. He said the operation's aims were met, and that the military continually studies conflicts worldwide and the changing character of war to prepare for future contingencies.

He argued that future wars will have to be fought in an integrated manner, encompassing not just operational integration but capability integration. Rather than debating what each service will do, planners should focus on the desired effect, the capability needed to deliver it and how it will be executed jointly. The groundwork for theatre commands has already been laid, he said, and it is only a matter of time before they take shape.

Watching the Mecca pact

Asked about the Mecca pact involving Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey, the CDS noted that decisions are often driven by perceived interests at a given time, particularly amid the situation in West Asia. Alliances, he said, must survive the test of time and moments when interests collide. India is monitoring developments closely and works with several partners in the region, with the protection of sovereign and national interests paramount. The military, he added, is ensuring it has the means and resources to look after itself while nurturing regional partnerships, since while India cannot dictate what other nations do, it can plan its own responses and focus on where threats originate.

AI as opportunity and challenge

On artificial intelligence, General Subramani described it as both an opportunity and a challenge, predicting it will transform the battlefield across planning, logistics, decision-support and intelligence. Realising that potential requires compute, data, networks and skilled personnel, and the defence forces are working closely with the national AI mission and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on the compute front.

Data, he acknowledged, had been siloed across the three services, but efforts are under way to standardise data schemas so that sharing becomes possible. AI is already in use in areas such as open-source intelligence and predictive intelligence. The forces are also seeking to make legacy systems smarter by infusing AI, ensuring new procurements are AI-enabled, and pushing for the technology to operate at the battle edge rather than only at the centre. Work is being done with private-sector players and the Defence Research and Development Organisation, he said.