Chennai: Days after he said India does not have the capability nor intention to match China's military prowess, Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta Thursday said "the weak area" for Beijing is the Indian naval presence in the Indian Ocean.
He said China's efforts to help Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Myanmar build ports was a part of its strategy to get a foothold in the area.
"The weak area for China today is the Indian Navy. We sit in the Indian Ocean and that is a concern for China and they are not happy as it is not so easy for them to come inside," Admiral Mehta told reporters in China.
Mehta had said on August 10 that "in military terms, both conventional and non-conventional," India neither has "the capability nor the intention to match China, force by force".
Asked by reporters on Thursday about India being "encircled" by such ports in its Asian neighbourhood with Chinese cooperation, Mehta said Beijing was building such "dependency ports" as part of their strategy.
"They are not happy and are concerned with our presence in the Indian Ocean. And therefore they have to do this, i.e, build dependency. That is their strategy and they are doing it to come over here and be present in the Indian Ocean in larger numbers," the Admiral said.
However, India should not involve with Beijing in an arms race and should rather try to "nullify" its numerical strength by using better technology.
"We have no intention to catch up on numbers... we will never be able to match up. And it will waste lot of resources. But we need to jump in some manner by using better technology to nullify the aspect of numbers," Admiral Mehta said.
"It's not that you have 50 ships, I have 50 ships... I may have ten ships which are much smarter and better and let us do that," he said on the sidelines of an event to mark the launch of new hi-tech boats to Tamil Nadu Sailing Association.
However, there was scope for the two Asian giants for cooperation in the area of defence, the Admiral said.
Recalling the words of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Admiral Mehta said "we have enough strategic space for both of us, which means we can cooperate and work together. If both of us have our space, then why (the need for) confrontation?" he said.
To a query on the recent detention of a North Korean ship near the Andaman and Nicobar islands, he said no full detail was available at this point of time.
"But with North Korea, we have to be doubly sure. But prima facie, it looks like it's got some genuine cargo which was destined for Iraq," he said adding different agencies were investigating the matter.