India’s border tension with China is continuing despite dozens of rounds of military-level talks. While the political-level talks claim to have broken the initial deadlock, the security forces on the ground remain wary of China’s tactics. The Indian Army is in operational readiness mode along the LAC ahead of the winter. While the Army continues to engage in talks with China’s army PLA, Indian Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi has said that India needs to be alert against grey zone battles.

“They are carrying out this artificial immigration, settlement. No problem, it’s their country, they can do whatever they want. But what we see in the South China Sea. When we talk about the grey zone…” said the Army Chief.

The Army chief further added, “Do we call Doklam a war? Do we call Kargil a full-fledged war? Do we call Galwan a war? The answer is no. So all these are basically part of the grey zone battle. So we need to be prepared for it…This means that there should be common thinking at the entire level because a small tactical misaction will lead to a strategic ramification which can involve the entire country. So, keeping this in mind, we are preparing ourselves for grey zone battles.”

Speaking at the Chanakya Defence Dialogue, Indian Army Chief Gen Upendra Dwivedi said that India needs to compete, confront and co-exist with China. “With China, you have to compete, cooperate, coexist, confront, and contest… So what’s the situation today? It’s stable, but it’s not normal and it’s sensitive. We want the situation to be restored back to what it was before April 2020, whether in terms of the ground occupation situation or the buffer zones which have been created or patroling which have been kind of planned as of now. So until that situation is restored, as far as we are concerned, the situation will remain sensitive and we are fully operationally prepared to face any kind of contingency,” said the army chief, adding that the trust has become the biggest casualty.