NEW DELHI: India on Friday boosted
military spending by 17 per cent to $40 billion for the coming year as it seeks
to counter China’s rapid military build-up and its traditional rival Pakistan.
The government,
engaged in a massive programme to upgrade the country’s ageing military
hardware, increased defence spending to 1.93 trillion rupees ($40 billion) for
the financial year to March 31, 2013.
“This
allocation is based on present needs and any further requirement will be met,”
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told lawmakers in announcing the 2012-13
budget in parliament.
The rise follows a 12 per cent
increase in defence spending in the previous year’s budget.
India
has fought three wars with neighbouring Pakistan since independence in 1947,
but China is increasingly seen as the main focus of its ambitious military
modernisation and procurement policy.
China earlier this
month announced an 11.2 per cent hike in military spending for 2012 to $106.41
billion, in a move analysts said would fuel concerns about Beijing’s military
build-up and increase regional tensions.
The
2,000-kilometre (1,200-mile) border between India and China has been the
subject of inconclusive diplomatic talks since the 1980s after the two nations
fought a brief but brutal war in 1962.
India,
one of the biggest importers of military hardware in the world, is also racked
by major internal security problems.
India’s
military is acquiring a slew of new equipment from combat aircraft to
submarines and artillery.
It
is currently finalising a deal
with France’s Dassault Aviation to buy 126 Rafale fighter jets in a contract
worth an estimated $12 billion
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