Introduction
General Anil Chauhan, India’s second Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and former General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Eastern Command, has consistently viewed national security and regional development as deeply interconnected. Having commanded some of India’s most sensitive frontier regions, including the Northeast theatre bordering China and Myanmar, Gen Chauhan developed a strategic understanding of how infrastructure, connectivity, local participation, and border stability directly influence national security. Northeast India occupies a critical place in India’s strategic geography due to its proximity to Southeast Asia, its shared borders with multiple countries, and its role within India’s Act East and Indo-Pacific policies. Under Gen Chauhan’s broader strategic outlook, frontier regions are not merely military buffer zones but spaces requiring sustained economic growth, technological integration, and social resilience. His emphasis on border villages, strategic connectivity, civil-military cooperation, and regional stability reflects a modern security doctrine in which development itself becomes a strategic instrument of statecraft.
