"As far as the northern adversary (China) is concerned, the flexing of muscles has started... Salami slicing, taking over territory in a very gradual manner, testing our limits of threshold... is something we have to be wary about and remain prepared for situations that could develop into conflicts," said Gen Rawat at a seminar here.

The Army chief said Pakistan could well swing into action to take advantage of such situations when India is busy with problems on the China front. "We have to be prepared for conflict on the northern and western borders," said Gen Rawat.

"As far as our western adversary is considered, we don't see any scope of reconciliation because their military, the polity, and the people in that nation have been made to believe that India wants to break their country into pieces," he added.

Stressing that war was very much in the "realm of reality", Army Chief said it was "myth" to assume that democracies or nuclear-armed neighbours do not go to war. 

"Credible deterrence does not take away the threat of war... Nuclear weapons are weapons of deterrence...Yes, they are! But to say that they can deter war, they will not allow nations to go to war, in our context that may also not be true," said Gen Rawat.

"Whether conflicts will be confined or limited in space and time or whether these can expand into an all-out war along the entire front (remains to be seen)... with the western adversary (Pakistan) taking advantage of the situation developing along the northern border (with China) being very much likely," he added.