"One border, two adversaries": Top Indian Army Officer says China supported Pakistan in Op Sindoor

Lieutenant General Rahul R Singh, the Deputy Chief of Army Staff, on Friday asserted that India faced "one border, two adversaries" during 'Operation Sindoor', the military response launched in May following the Pahalgam terror attack. Speaking at a FICCI event on 'New Age Military Technologies,' Lt Gen Singh revealed that while Pakistan was the direct frontline adversary, China provided "all possible support" to Islamabad, including feeding live operational data and supplying military hardware.

Lt Gen Singh provided concrete statistics to underscore China's deep involvement, stating, "If you were to look at statistics, in the last five years, 81 per cent of the military hardware that Pakistan is getting is all Chinese." He added that this significant reliance effectively turns Pakistan into a "live lab" for China to test its weapons against various other military systems. This revelation points to a deeper strategic nexus between Beijing and Islamabad, complicating India's security calculus along its western borders.

Operation Sindoor, which involved precision strikes against terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, highlighted the evolving nature of warfare and the challenges posed by such collaborations. Lt Gen Singh further warned that China fed real-time intelligence to Pakistan during the conflict, allowing Pakistan to track India's important military vectors, thus revealing critical gaps in India's own defenses that need urgent attention. This assessment underscores the need for India to rapidly enhance its air defense and technological capabilities to counter future threats from a coordinated front.