New Delhi, Oct 26, 2023, By Special Correspondent

New Delhi, Oct 26: The Indian Army is focusing to reduce import dependency to the least and becoming self-reliant, Army Chief Gen Manoj Pande has said.

He also noted that the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict reaffirmed the significance of land warfare and said the domain will remain "extremely important" in India's case as well as for countries having contested borders.

The Army Chief was speaking at Chanakya Defence Dialogue curtain raiser event here.

Gen Pande said that the Army has dealt with the internal security challenges in a manner expected from this force. He elaborated that the Army has defined five important pillars of transformation which are force restructuring, modernisation, technology infusion, refining its system and functioning, jointness and integration and human resource management.

The Army chief listed technology infusion into his force as a key focus area and said the Army is making good progress on this front.

Gen Pande said that the border situation remains stable and there is a need to remain proactive to deal with various security challenges.

Referring to the situation along the Line of Actual Control with China, he said the border situation remains stable and that his force is focusing on boosting its overall combat capabilities to effectively deal with any future security challenges.

Delving into global geopolitical upheavals, the Chief of Army Staff said the key lesson that the Army has learnt from the Russia-Ukraine conflict is that it can't rely on import of military hardware and achieving self-reliance in defence is very important.

He described the Indo-Pacific as a key region and noted that India has an important role to play.

On the issue of increasing global focus on the maritime domain while both Russia-Ukraine war and Hamas-Israel conflict have the dimension of land, Gen Pande said land warfare will remain crucial in the Indian context.

Talking about India's rising global profile, Gen Pande said India will continue to play a key role in the Indo-Pacific region. "With the enhanced stature, we will have additional responsibilities and with this we will have certain challenges to encounter," he said.

The Chief of Army Staff said "In all of this, we need to remain proactive rather than responding or reacting. We should be able to shape our strategies."

He said there will be responsibilities, opportunities and challenges for India in the Indo-pacific and spoke about how national security is emerging as a crucial aspect in the geo-political competition.

Gen pande also informed that the first batch of 40,000 Agniveers recruited under the Agnipath Scheme has joined the Army and feedback from the ground level of the units is encouraging.