Bhamre said the Indian Navy maintains regular presence and surveillance in the maritime areas of its interest. The Navy had operationalised a new ‘mission-ready’ plan for aggressive deployment of warships in critical sea lanes a few months back, seen as a move to check China’s growing assertiveness in the Indian Ocean region. “At present, there is no information to suggest that China is exercising freedom of navigation operations in the Indian Ocean Region,” said Bhamre. In November, India had joined hands with the US, Japan and Australia to form a quadrilateral coalition to pursue common interests in the Indo-Pacific region.
To a separate question, Bhamre said government was aware of the urgent need for road infrastructure along the international borders in the country. He said as per the operational requirement of the Army, 530 roads of length 22,803 km are identified for construction/improvement by Border Roads Organisation (BRO).
Source: PTI