CHANDIGARH: “When you have better understanding between the militaries of two nations, wars can be avoided,” said former army chief General VP Malik, during the Military Literature Festival, here on Saturday.
The advantage with military diplomacy is that it is largely secretive. He recounted his experience of engaging with the leadership in Myanmar in 2000 when its army ruled the country.
“To engage with the vicechairman, I flew to Mandley. Stayed there for two-three days and interacted with the leaders. I then asked the vice-chairman to come to Shillong and spend some time. When he was returning, I handed him a map that marked the militant hideouts that I wanted the Myanmar Army to attack. All this happened in complete secrecy,” he said.
He added that even though military diplomacy can never replace traditional diplomacy, it can be effectively used to supplement the latter.
Lt Gen Hardev Singh Lidder (retd) said for an effective diplomacy we need to identify the countries that we want to engage with and then earmark the specific areas of engagement. “Unfortunately, this practice is rarely followed in India,” he said.