NEW DELHI: One of India’s celebrated spooks and national security advisor Ajit Doval on Friday sought to play down Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar ’s controversial comment of using terrorists to neutralize terrorists, saying India is building its response capability that acts as a deterrent to acts of terror."It is a general statement. Interpreting ‘Kante se kaanta nikalna’ (removing a thorn with a thorn) as you do covert operations… that is not necessarily the correct interpretation. It is a question of balancing the response to the threat. That is, your response capability and response plans must be compatible with the quantum and gravity of the threat so as to build up a deterrent," Doval said at a BSF function, when asked about Parrikar’s comments.On Thursday, Parrikar had said India has to neutralise terrorists through terrorists, using the Hindi phrase ‘kante se kanta nikalna’ "Why can’t we do it? We should do it. Why does my soldier have to do it?" Parrikar had said. Doval said he does not know the context of the defence minister’s statement. "It could mean having skills, equipment, tactics… it can have many meanings," he said.In his 40-minute long lecture at the BSF function, Doval said India was upgrading its capabilities despite reservations from its neighbouring countries."Deterrence is necessary to avoid conflict.China has got a special strategic relationship with Pakistan which is another type of problem. Both these countries are nuclear (powers), both countries are not the type of democracies that we understand as one," Doval said.Doval credited the Modi government for intrusions from China "becoming much less" in the last one year and said that China had withdrawn after they intruded on few occasions. "There have been a series of special representative level talks, 17 rounds of them — and they havn’t reached anywhere," Doval said on the issue of settling the boundary issue with China.Doval, who is now the special representative for talks with China, said all the advancements that India makes in its relationship with China get centered around settlement of the border and also maintenance of peace and tranquility on the border."We are particularly concerned about the Eastern sector where the claims have been made on Tawang, which is totally in contravention of the accepted principles, like they having accepted the MacMohan line by settling the border with Burma up to the trijunction and thereafter telling this line is not acceptable in the eastern sector," Doval said.He said such "ticklish issues" need to be deliberated about and India has to work on a "larger plan" on how to tackle China. On Pakistan, Doval said it works on a "faulty assumption" that India uses Afghanistan soil and its nationals to destablise Islamabad. He also dismissed the recent agreement signed few days ago between Afghanistan’s intelligence agency the National Directorate of Security (NDS) and Pakistan’s ISI to co-operate in areas of counter-terrorism