The Hindu Business Line : `Covert wars have economic dimension'

THE nature of warfare has swung towards covert wars because it is prohibitively costly to capture and exploit territories without local support. India is the country most threatened by covert war, said Lieutenant General Shantonu Choudhry, Vice-Chief of the Army Staff.

General Choudhry drew attention to the economic dimension of covert warfare when he recounted that Pakistanis had been involved in circulating fake Indian currency notes. He emphasised that the aim of national security is to provide the environment for economic progress.

Looking at geopolitics from an economic perspective, the General identified the Indian Ocean and the stretch of Iran and Afghanistan as critical areas— Indian Ocean for its international sea-lanes and the latter for safeguarding our energy requirements.

"Iran and Afghanistan must remain our friends," he said delivering the T.S. Narayanaswami memorial lecture organised by The India Cements Educational Society here. On the Indian Ocean, he felt, "Our navy must be strengthened to dominate this area when required."

At a broader level, while providing a historical context to current security challenges, General Choudhry picked the erstwhile USSR's occupation of Afghanistan as a watershed development in world politics.

He said that many current problems were rooted in the reactions to the USSR's move, especially the birth and strengthening of religious fundamentalist organisations. The chain of events eventually led to disproportionate problems posed by "stateless" entities.

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