‘Deeper Than The Seas, Higher Than The Mountains’: Lt Gen Rajiv Ghai Warns No Sanctuary Is Safe Across LoC

Lieutenant General Rajiv Ghai said India is fully prepared to tackle growing Pakistan-China security challenges and warned that no sanctuary across the Line of Control is safe, reaffirming the armed forces’ readiness for multi-front threats.

New Delhi: India is fully prepared to confront a complex, multi-front security environment, including the deepening military alliance between Pakistan and China, the former Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) and the current deputy chief of Indian Army, Lieutenant General Rajiv Ghai said on Thursday.

Addressing the mediapersons on the occasion of Operation Sindoor’s first anniversary, Lt Gen Ghai pointedly invoked Pakistan and China's own characterisation of their partnership – one “deeper than the seas, higher than the mountains” to underscore the strategic reality India faces.

“The fact that Pakistan has 80% of its military equipment of Chinese origin is a given,” he said, adding that the prospect of facing multiple adversaries simultaneously, including Turkey, China, and Pakistan on the same front was a challenge India's armed forces were squarely prepared for.

“You play against the team that turns up on the park,” he remarked.

He also stated that lessons absorbed from last year's escalation had been thoroughly internalised.

“India and its armed forces are all on the path to meeting these challenges,” he said, offering the public “a sense and an assurance” of the military's readiness.

His sharpest remarks, however, were directed at Pakistan's expectation of safe havens across the Line of Control.

“No sanctuary across the Line of Control is safe. We will hit everything,” Lt Gen Ghai declared, invoking the doctrine of the ‘new normal’ articulated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Crucially, he made clear that while the resolve to strike is absolute, India reserves the right to choose its moment. “The conditions, the timing and the method will be ours,” he said.

Director General Naval Operation (DGNO) Vice Admiral AN Pramod

On the collusivity between China and Pakistan, Indian Navy’s Vice Admiral AN Pramod said: “I would like to respond to your question through certain signposts which you have seen in the diplomatic front when the Pahalgam attack happened. China refrain from condemning the Pahalgam attack. Similarly, when the UN Security Council press statements were made, and that's the time when China again influenced, and the references of the resistance front were directly involved in the attack. That was not made.”

“As General Ghai had mentioned, that 80% of arms imports are from China. That's a kind of economic, military, and strategic relationship with China and Pakistan.”

“More importantly, in terms of the imports which happen in the arms and the niche platforms, whether it is ships, aircraft or submarines, the best of the platforms are given, and recently you saw also that they know they already announced in the next two years, 40-odd J-35s are going, and this is only on the hardware platform,” he said.

Pakistan and China Testing New Missiles

On Pakistan and China testing new kinds of missiles, former Director General Air Operation (DGAO) and current deputy chief of Indian Air Force Air Marshal Awadhesh Kumar Bharti said: “We are continuously doing the environment scan. That's our job. Whatever requires to be done, we put in motion as to always be ahead of their capabilities, and the dynamics are different between Pakistan and China. But we are continuously factoring in.”

“You would remember we have already contracted for the S-400. Some units were yet to be fetched in. So they are fetching in now. We are also working on indigenous systems like Kusha, which you would be aware of. Our DRDO is working on that. We hope that it will be available to us in the future. The Prime Minister has already conveyed the direction for Sudarshan Chakra, so we are working towards that... So it's a continuous process, and it's not that we don't articulate in the open media as to what all we are doing.”