There's always been a big gap, we've bridged it in the past by dedicating a much larger proportion of our national resources to defence compared to the Indians. And crucially by building alliances with superpowers such as the US and China. And also in the event of war, we have always banked on it ending before attrition knocks us out cold.
Today the gap is larger than in the past and IMO the real worry is the sheer potential that exists for the gap to grow in coming years and decades. At the end of the day, the economy is the bottom line which underpins the ability of a country to gather enough internal resources for defensive needs, maintaining a industry and external acquisitions. The Indian economy will eventually overtake all other economies in size save for China and the US, it's reasonable to project that they would also have the ability to meet nearly all their security needs through the sole use of internal resources, technologies and industries.
There are plenty of areas in defence where a critical mass is needed before even attempting to pursue certain defense projects, for example, designing your own turbofan engine, having the necessary tech base and metallurgy for turbine design. This is a game for heavyweights, technology alone may not cut it. Indians might eventually achieve this some decades from now, we can only dream of it.
Other advantages that come with size include economies of scale, e.g building one or two destroyers is expensive and high cost of R&D and tailor-made technologies drives up total cost per ship, but if like China you've built an industry that can churn out several of each type and build numerous simultaneously, all while having commonality in technology with other vessels that you produce, then the cost per craft is decreased. This economy of scale is enjoyed by major powers who have large domestic need and also export customers, it allows them to justify high levels of R&D.
These are just defence industry related comments I've made. With scale also comes diplomatic power, financial/economic power and geopolitical power. These can again be counterbalanced with competent leadership and a well-functioning state, as well as those alliances we mentioned before. And luckily we are heading towards a multi-polar world in which no one power or one group of powers will dominate world trade and international affairs. Dollar sanctions won't mean as much as they did in the past, UNSC heavyweights may have their counterweights.
Now I'm going to say something that might be unpopular to some on here. Eventually, it is within out best interests to make peace with India. As of today, we have maintained through hard work, luck and alliances, and by the grace of God, a significant deterrence against India. But it costs us a lot, and it will be even harder to sustain in the future. If it wasn't for our alliance with China, things would already be looking very bleak. I know that the political appetite for peace in our camp is now strong, both the civilian leadership and the army want to have talks with India. I hope we can find some like-minded and sane heads on the other side and come to some better situation in the future. Then we can discuss the benefits that come with a peace dividend, instead of discussing grim matters such as how well we protect ourselves from one another.
