My Priority Will Be To Ensure High Standards Of Operational Preparedness, Says Army Chief Manoj Pande

Underlining the challenges on the border, the Army Chief said that India has made it clear to China that it will not allow any change in the status quo on the LAC.

India’s newly appointed Chief of the Army Staff, General Manoj Pande inspects a guard of honour (Source: AFP)

New Delhi: A day after taking charge, Army Chief General Manoj Pande said that his top priority in this position will be to maintain high standards of operational preparedness to meet the present and future challenges in all kinds of combat. 

Talking about the Line of Control (LOC) and the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the country's new Army Chief General Manoj Pande said broadly on Sunday that the situation is normal on both sides.

"My utmost and foremost priority will be to ensure very high standards of operational preparedness to face the current, contemporary and future challenges across the entire spectrum of conflict," he said.

Underlining the challenges on the border, the Army Chief said that India has made it clear to China that it will not allow any change in the status quo on the LAC.

The army chief said in an interview with news agency ANI that "The unilateral and provocative actions by our adversary, with an aim to alter the status quo by force, I feel has been responded to. Over the last two years, we have carried out the continuous assessment and likewise realigned and reoriented our forces".

"In terms of capability development and force modernisation, my effort would be to leverage new technologies through indigenisation and self-reliance," he said.

Lieutenant General Manoj Pande on Saturday took charge as the new Chief of Army Staff, succeeding General Manoj Mukund Naravane.

General Pande is the first officer from the Corps of Engineers to become the Army Chief.

He was earlier the Indian Army’s Vice Chief - a position he assumed in February this year.