India ready to quell any misadventure from across the border: Navy chief designate Swaminathan

Mumbai: Indian Navy chief designate Vice Admiral Krishna Swaminathan on Monday said the country remains prepared for any misadventure that comes from across the border and ready to quell it.

Swaminathan, the Flag Officer, Commanding-in Chief of the Western Naval Command, said India has been a victim of terrorism for several years.

It cannot accept terrorist activities in the country, especially when it comes from foreign soil, he said.


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Swaminathan further said Operation Sindoor was targeted specifically at terrorists and terrorist camps that participated in a very dastardly incident in Pahalgam in 2025.

"Anybody who is sensible in the world knows the misadventure does not come anywhere or anytime from India. India has always been in a responding kind of mode. The misadventure comes from across the border. People can say what they want, but as far we are concerned, India will remain prepared and if any misadventure comes from that side we are actually ready to quell it," Swaminathan said.

Swaminathan was responding to reports of remarks made by Field Marshal Asim Munir, also the Chief of Defence Forces of Pakistan, that any future misadventure against Islamabad will result in extremely widespread and dangerous, far-reaching and painful consequences for New Delhi.

Swaminathan said Operation Sindoor is important to make sure India does not continue to be a victim of terrorism.

It also reminds about what needs to do to done to make the country stronger. As far as the Indian office are concerned Operation Sindoor is ongoing, he said.

"So we continue to be prepared for whatever challenges anybody might throw at us and we continue to negotiate terrorism from a position of strength," the Navy chief designate asserted.

In response to the Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people, mostly tourists, were gunned down, India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 last year, carrying out airstrikes on nine terror infrastructures in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, eliminating at least 100 terrorists.

"The global security environment is undergoing profound change. Supply chains are increasingly weaponised, access to critical technologies is contested, and geopolitical competition is reshaping the strategic landscape across all regions and all domains. Nations that depend excessively on external suppliers, for defence preparedness, expose themselves, not only to economic vulnerability, but also to strategic uncertainty," Swaminathan said.

While stressing that nearly 95 per cent of India's trade by volume and roughly 70 per cent by value continues to transit on the seas, he said the country's energy security, oil, batteries, the energy that fuels its cities etc comes by ships.

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India's competitiveness depends on safety lanes, the Vice Admiral emphasised.

"The Indian Ocean is, and has always been, India's arena. Today, the Indo-Pacific emerges as a defining theatre of 21st century geopolitics. The Indian Ocean is becoming even more contested, more watched, and more consequential. The Indian Navy is the guardian of this domain," he said.

The Indian Navy is not a peacetime ceremonial force but an operational navy deployed continuously across the vast and complex maritime theatre, he asserted.

And to fulfil its mandate, the navy must be equipped, armed, maintained and sustained with systems and platforms that are designed, developed and built in India, he said stressing on self-reliance.

Vice Admiral Krishna Swaminathan was on May 9 appointed India's next Chief of the Naval Staff. He succeeds Admiral Dinesh Kumar Tripathi, who retires from service on May 31.