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Shangri-La Dialogue: India no threat to China’s military, PLA delegation says
- South Asian nation ‘unlikely to catch up’ to Chinese defence industry and weapons systems, says senior colonel on sidelines of security forum
- Despite clashes with Beijing over border, New Delhi unlikely to be ‘loyal partner’ in Washington’s strategy to counter China, observers say
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India will not pose a security threat to China because it is still incapable of challenging Beijing in defence manufacturing and modernisation of its military, said Chinese military delegates to Asia’s premier security forum.
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Speaking to media on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, which closed on Sunday, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) delegates said India was still a long way from catching up to China’s military, especially in the defence industry.
“India is unlikely to catch up to China in the coming decades because of its weak industrial infrastructure, while China has built complex and systematic defence industrial platforms,” said Senior Colonel Zhao Xiaozhuo of the PLA Academy of Military Sciences.
“When you look at the Indian military’s weapon systems, what types of tanks, aircraft and warships were made and developed by Indians themselves?”
India was the world’s biggest importer of major arms from 2018 to 2022, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, with 31 per cent of its total arms coming from Russia in that period.
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