After India’s Operation Sindoor, India’s neighbour, Pakistan, has been buying arms and ammunition from the world, which is now a matter of concern for New Delhi that especially at a time when China also remains a challenge. The remarks are of Vice-Admiral K Swaminathan, head of the Western Naval Command headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
Speaking on Wednesday at a security conference organised by the Bramha Research Foundation, the Vice-Admiral added that China’s Navy has already become the largest in the world and has added fleet to the size of the Indian Navy in just the last decade and is expanding like never before. The top naval official noted that the commissioning of Fujian, the third aircraft carrier of the Chinese Navy, along with the demonstration of fifth and sixth-generation fighters, is part of the Communist nation's global strategic narrative and signalling.
"China, also worryingly for us, continues to maintain five to eight ships in the Indian Ocean Region. China is not only becoming more assertive in the South China Sea but also in the Indian Ocean Region. Therefore, China will continue to be an enduring challenge," he observed.
Further shedding light on May 2025’s Operation Sindoor, he said that the op has been a crucial inflexion point, establishing a new normal in the India-Pakistan relationship. India’s Op Sindoor targeted nine terrorist hubs, located in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir. This was the Indian military’s action in response to the Pahalgam terror attack in April, which claimed the lives of 26 people, most of them tourists.
"It is a very significant departure from how we view Pakistan and the response that Pakistan brings about in whatever happens in the subcontinent. Pakistan, of course, after the end of the operation, has been on an exercise to arm itself like never before. So that again should be a matter of concern for all of us in the subcontinent," he added.
"The Pakistani Army is shopping all around the world for arms and ammunition with very scant regard to what else is happening in that country," he said, adding, “One, of course, was the collusion between Pakistan and China that we always knew manifested. We somehow thought that might be covert, but somewhat over a little bit. But it was undeniably overt in very clear broad daylight.”
Turkey’s support to Pak a new development - Vice Adm
The emergence of Turkey as a key sponsor, supporter and supplier (to Pakistan) is a new development that has to be watched very carefully, he suggested, and said, "This was something we had always suspected and knew. The fact that it manifested a little more than we thought, in a way, was a new opener.”
Pakistan was openly backed/supported by Turkey and China during the Op Sindoor.
Speaking further on the May 7-10 military conflict, he said the exercise was yet another demonstration of how the Indian armed forces synergised and carried out very well synchronised, well-coordinated, well-planned and well-executed strikes on chosen targets.
The success of these strikes demonstrated the collapse of regional assumptions that Pakistan's nuclear shield, besides covert and overt support from sponsors and financial backers, will deter India from carrying out conventional operations, Swaminathan asserted. The four-day operation demonstrated the multi-domain capability of the Indian armed forces, he told the conference.
Participating in a panel discussion at the event, Air Marshal Rakesh Sinha, Deputy Chief at the Integrated Defence Staff (Operations), said through Operation Sindoor, India displayed total synergy of all three services - Army, Navy and IAF.
While the Air Force emerged as the major player in displaying the strategic reach and precision targeting, it was the joint planning at the apex level and its execution which startled Pakistan, Sinha said.
"India (with Operation Sindoor) has given a message of a new normal — that if the enemy indulges in action that causes trouble to India, then it will give a decisive response at time and place of its choosing and no nuclear blackmail will be accepted," affirmed the Air Marshal.
Indian drones were effective during the conflict due to the country's robust Airborne Warning and Control System, he added.
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