The government of India has announced to increase the defense budget by 13% for this year 2023.
According to the news from the Indian media, in the context of border disputes and clashes with neighboring countries Pakistan and China, India has increased the annual defense budget by 13% to equip its army with modern weapons and weapons. What is the decision?
The two neighbors have long-standing disputes over borders, trade and technology, and have steadily increased their military strength since the 2020 standoff with China in Ladakh.
India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a budget of 550 billion dollars, in which 73 billion dollars have been earmarked for defense. Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said in his tweet that 13 percent of the total budget will be spent on defense expenditure.
According to the British news agency Reuters, Laxman Behera, a defense expert at Jawahar Lal University in New Delhi, said that an increase in the defense budget is appropriate considering the needs to equip the army with innovation, but it will not be able to meet all the needs. .
He said that the government has tried to allocate adequate funds for the defense forces while maintaining balance in other priorities. With over 1.3 million troops, India’s defense budget is 2 percent of GDP, but this is still far less than China’s, which spends $230 billion a year on its defense.
On the other hand, the well-known international think tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute says that India is currently on the third place in the list of countries spending the most money on their military in the world and now after a 13% increase in the budget, the total But will spend 73 billion dollars.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has continued to build military capabilities, including border defense and armaments processes, and is now building its own nuclear submarines, as well as an indigenously developed aircraft carrier last year. It was unveiled.
India is mostly dependent on its long-time partner Russia for arms imports, while the rest is bought from the US, France and Israel, but the finance minister said the government wants to promote self-reliance in military equipment and armaments.
It has rapidly increased military expenditure to equip the army on modern lines to provide the best and abundant weapons to its troops on the border between Pakistan and China.