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| Indian Border Guards on patrol (File Photo) |
BANGALORE, India, April 12 (UPI) -- India must speed up modernization of its army and air force in the face of China's military threat and Pakistan's backing of Taliban groups, an official says.
The country has been slow to build up defensive forces along its northern borders to counter China's "military assertiveness," Indian Defense Minister A.K. Antony said during his presentation at a closed-session army commanders' conference this week.
The Times News Network reported Antony saying China has been developing its military infrastructure along the 2,520-mile Line of Actual Control, a cease-fire border demarcation agreed with India.
China also has been building up relations with Pakistan, a country that continues its "anti-India stance" and its "obsession" with occupying India's neighboring Jammu and Kashmir state, Antony said.
Pakistan is "a unique threat" because of its rapidly growing nuclear arsenal coupled with its military modernization thanks to help from China and the United States.
India is concerned that a Chinese company won the contract to run Pakistan's deep-water port of Gwadar -- further evidence of a deepening Pakistan-China axis, Antony said.
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