Combined Commanders' key meet to focus on three-front war

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the Combined Commanders Conference this Saturday to be held in Bhopal.

The three day conference will be attended by officers of ranks of the Commander-in-Chiefs and above, and will begin on march 30.

The conference is a crucial one and comes at a time when there is a global turmoil with the ongoing war in Ukraine.

With the global order fast changing and wars getting trickier, the Indian military commanders will be brought to speed over these changes. The meet is also important in the context of new groupings being formed and the old ones getting dissolved.

The meeting also comes at a time when the tense stand-off between India and China continues along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.

Since the stand-off which began on May 5 2020, the Tripura-services has changed its approach. The new mindset is to focus on war-fighting skills rather than rely solely on bureaucracy. India has been programming its forces to fight a three front war since the aggression along the LAC began. While China and Pakistan are clearly the dangers to India, there is also the problem of a cyberwar. The Indian military planners have however been concentrating more on an aggressive China.

In this regard, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had appointed the first Chief of Defence Staff. This announcement was crucial as India is creating the military theatre commands. This is a work still in progress and it had been delayed due to the death of India's first CDS, General Bipin Rawat.

During the meet at Bhopal, Prime Minister Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval will spell out India's military vision. They are expected to spell out that the focus must be on China and not just on Pakistan. The main message would be to move out of the colonial mindset and prepare for new challenges, especially a three-front war.