CDS Anil Chauhan on Indian Defence: India’s Chief of Defence Staff, General Anil Chauhan, said that India is both a land and sea power. He shared that this gives India a strong and special place in the Indian Ocean region. Speaking at the 9th Military Literature Festival 2025 in Chandigarh on Sunday, he said this position brings both honour and responsibility. “The honour comes with the honour and added responsibility of always being the first responder and preferred partner of choice for any other country in the region,” he said.
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India’s Geography
General Chauhan explained that India’s geography gives it a big advantage. He spoke about how power in the world has changed over time. Earlier, countries fought for land and air, but now, they also compete in space, the internet world, and even in people’s minds.
“Over a century, the struggle for global power has been in essence a struggle for control of geography. The seas, the continents, the skies, and if you look at today’s context, it extends towards space, cyberspace, and the cognitive domain. The location of nation states and its clinical geography determines its ability to project power and provide strategic options beyond its size,” General Chauhan said.
He also talked about how India’s past shaped its view of the world. “If you look at the geopolitical events of the 20th century, India’s partition, the coming of Pakistan, our war with China, forced India to have a continental kind of an outlook. But if you look at India’s geography, I think it says that India is both a continental and a maritime power… So India enjoys a predominant position in the Indian Ocean region, and hence, we are always the first responder and preferred partner of choice for any other country…” he said.
Lessons from Other Nations
The CDS mentioned that British writer Tim Marshall’s book ‘Prisoners of Geography’ shows how a country’s location decides its power and choices. He agreed with the idea that geography plays a huge role in deciding how strong a nation can become.
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General Chauhan also gave examples of other small countries that are very important because of where they are located. He said, “There are two small nations, Djibouti and Singapore, both of which lie at the Bab el Mandeb and the Strait of Malacca, not only strategically important but also important for trade. Similarly, if we look at our nearest maritime neighbour Indonesia, the number of states which connect the Pacific and the Indian Ocean, that is Malacca, Sunda, Lombok, and Ombai-Wetar Straits,” the CDS said.
He explained that these places are key to world trade and show how geography can make even small nations very powerful. He said that India’s position is similar but much bigger in importance because it sits at the center of the Indian Ocean.
