New Delhi: The newly appointed Chief of Army Staff, General Mukund Naravane on Tuesday slammed Pakistan in an indirect jibe and said that the “neighbouring country” used terrorism as a tool of state policy. He also asserted that his main aim would be to maintain the high standard of operational readiness of the force.

Hours after taking charge Naravane was quoted by news agency ANI as saying: “Terrorism is a worldwide problem, India has been at the receiving end of terrorism for a long time. It is only now that the entire world and many countries affected with terrorism are coming to realise what a threat it is.”

As far as our neighbour is concerned they are trying to use terrorism as a tool of state policy, as a way of carrying out a proxy war against us...while maintaining deniability, he said.

“However, this state can't last long, as they say, you can't fool all the people, all the time," he added.

Naravane took over as Chief of Army Staff, on Tuesday, succeeding General Bipin Rawat, who has been appointed India's first Chief of the Defence Staff.

General Naravane was serving as Vice Chief of Indian Army.

Before that he was heading the eastern Command of the force, which takes care of India's nearly 4,000 km border with China.

In his 37 years of service, General Naravane has served in numerous command and staff appointments in peace, field and highly active counter-insurgency environments in Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast.

Naravane said that post the abrogation of Article 370, there has been a definite improvement in the situation on the ground.