Anticipated Taliban takeover but surprised at speed: CDS
Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat said on Wednesday that India had anticipated the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan but was surprised by the speed with which they had taken over the country.
He said that it was the same Taliban that was in Afghanistan 20 years ago and warned any terrorist activity from Afghanistan into India “will be dealt with in the manner in which we are dealing with terrorism in our country”.
“Everything that has happened was something that had been anticipated, only the timelines have changed. From the Indian perspective, we were anticipating the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. We were concerned about how terrorist activity from Afghanistan could overflow into India and so to that extent our contingency
planning had been ongoing and we’re prepared for that,” he said.
“Yes the timelines have certainly surprised us because we were anticipating this thing happening maybe a couple of months down the line,” he said, adding that it is pretty much the same Taliban that was there 20 years ago.
“News reports and news from expats who have come from there are all telling us the kind of activities that Taliban is into. All that has happened is that the partners have now changed. It's the same Taliban with different partners,” said Gen.
Rawat. He said India is committed to ensure that we have a terrorist-free environment in the region.
“As far as Afghanistan is concerned, we’ll make sure that any activity likely to flow out of Afghanistan and find its way into India will be dealt with in the manner in which we're dealing with terrorism in our country,” said Gen. Rawat.
On China, CDS said it is expanding their Navy exponentially. “I think today it (China) is possibly the largest expanding Navy in the world and we surely see the threat also emerging in Indian Ocean Region, therefore we have to also counter this threat by ensuring that we also develop our naval armada accordingly,” he said.
Gen. Rawat said that the aircraft carriers that the Chinese are building are not just for the Pacific or the South China Sea because China is aspiring to become a global power.