Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari is expected to take over as officiating COSC

|HT|

Indian Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari is expected to take over as the officiating chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC) shortly, and in that capacity, he will be responsible for promoting synergy, cooperation and jointness among the three services in the absence of a chief of defence staff (CDS), officials familiar with the development said on Monday, asking not to be named. Chaudhari became the senior-most commander in the Indian armed forces after General Manoj Mukund Naravane retired as army chief on April 30. Naravane took charge as the officiating chairman of COSC after India’s first CDS General Bipin Rawat was killed in a helicopter crash near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu on December 8, 2021.

The CDS’s post has been vacant for almost five months as the government is yet to name Rawat’s successor.

“The IAF chief will take over as officiating chairman of COSC in the coming days as he is the senior-most service chief. He will be responsible for synergy, cooperation and jointness among the three services till the government appoints the next CDS,” said one of the officials.

Before the government created the post of CDS and the department of military affairs (DMA) in December 2019, the senior-most service chief held the charge of chairman of COSC and was responsible for interservices cooperation.

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