The ongoing Combined Commanders’ Conference in Calcutta has identified the upsurge of radical elements in Bangladesh, Pakistan’s terror funding, the border standoff with China and the political turmoil in Nepal as the key issues affecting India’s neighbourhood, sources in the security establishment said on Tuesday.

A security official with the Union home ministry said the developments in India’s neighbourhood, especially in Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan, had created “new security challenges” for the country.

“All these issues, along with anti-India sentiments in neighbouring countries, which are posing a challenge to peace and stability in the region, are also being discussed threadbare at the apex forum. The top military brass deliberated upon the current and future challenges to the nation in the context of national security,” the official said.

Beijing’s aggressive stance, especially in the Indo-Pacific and South China Sea, and the ongoing border standoff with the People’s Liberation Army along the frontier in Ladakh, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, pose indirect threats to India, he said.

The three-day biennial conference was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the army’s Eastern Command headquarters in Calcutta on Monday. The conference is the apex forum that brings together the country’s top civilian and military leadership to chart the path of India’s defence preparedness.

“The thrust of the conference is to enhance India’s security along its borders and also prepare it to face challenges from two fronts (Pakistan and China-Pakistan). Besides, border challenges concerning Nepal, Bangladesh and China are also being deliberated,” the security official said.

Sources in the security establishment flagged the emerging challenges on India’s eastern frontier as a matter of grave concern. “The rise of radical elements in Bangladesh after the regime change and the growing anti-India rhetoric in the country are of grave concern,” said an Intelligence Bureau official.

Over the years, illegal migration from Bangladesh has increased, affecting the demographic profile of border districts in Bengal and Assam and adding to India’s security concerns, he said.

The top brass also carried out a comprehensive review of the security situation along the China frontier in eastern Ladakh and the eastern sector, where India and China have been locked in a border standoff.

“The focus of the conference is on future capability building, including organisation structures for joint and integrated response and ushering in efficiency, transparency and accountability in the work process during peace and war,” the official said.

Addressing the conference, defence minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday spoke of a “turbulent global order, regional instability and the emerging security landscape”.