One MOD person was saying they are fed up with attitude of army brass just picking off foreign weapons off shelves instead of focusing on building them in India. One cannot say who is at fault, when there is a war you do need the best you can lay your hands on, but that is no excuse for not building up your own arms industry. That is why perhaps RM is focusing on defence offsets.
China saying it is too passive in our neighourhood, Alice in Wonderland perspective.
http://opinion.globaltimes.cn/editorial ... 78296.html
China should act as regional stabilizer
Source: Global Times [01:11 October 20 2009] Comments China's neighboring countries, with several exceptions, do not enjoy economic and political stability.
The areas surrounding China are troubled by complicated religious and ethnic conflicts. Some of the regions bordering China are home to terrorist organizations and zones of dense nuclear weapons deployment.
Territorial disputes constantly upset bilateral relations among China and its neighbors, while rivalries between the bigger countries threaten to trouble the fragile balance of power. The situation has worsened recently.
The Pakistani government can barely handle resurgent Taliban forces; fighting there has forced 100,000 Pakistanis to flee their homes.
In Iran, a suicide bomber killed dozens of high-level military officials Sunday near the border with Pakistan. And in North Korea and Afghanistan, forward momentum has stalled, leaving the future uncertain.
China can and should exert more influence in all of these countries, but has not. Its involvement with its neighbors has been limited to passively providing aid, receiving refugees, and maintaining order along border areas.
Such reservation has cost China dearly. It is losing the initiative in maintaining order within its neighbors.
Regional instability has caused problems on its own soil, as exemplified by the Xinjiang riots in July.
Ironically, China's hands-off approach has not convinced the world of its desire for peaceful development. The perception of China as a military threat remains.
After the Cold War, China ended long hostility with some of its neighbors, creating a favorable environment for the country's fast economic growth in the following years.
The situation now calls for more active involvement. Watching neighbors slip into worsening trouble and doing nothing does not fit with China's economic power, and will create a perilous situation when troubled neighbors ask for assistance elsewhere.
The responsibility of a regional power includes acting as a stabilizing force. China can exert influence with a combination of political, military and economic action, using both soft and hard power.
But the country is ill-prepared to take on this new role, in terms of its media, academia and diplomacy.
There is an urgent need for a public debate on China's strategy regarding surrounding areas and how it can better help stabilize neighboring countries.
Chinese scholars are talking about a period of strategic opportunity. They maintain that this hard-earned time of peace, crucial to China's development, should not be disrupted by mischief. Such peace cannot be created by others: It requires China's own active efforts.
.Nice job.
actually, the name is "sharma, animesh sharma". 