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SAPRA India Monthly Bulletin: 2007 Issues
March 2007 Issue: Focus on China's Military Spending
On 4 March 2007, Jiang Enzhu, a spokesman for the National People’s Congress - the Communist Party of China controlled national legislature - said China’s military budget would rise this year by 17.8 percent to roughly 350 billion yuan, or just under $45 billion. This was China’s biggest increase in defence spending in five years. “We must increase our military budget, as it is important to national security,” Mr. Jiang said at the news conference. He further added that “China’s military must modernize. Our overall defenses are weak.” Raising concerns all over the Asia-Pacific and beyond, China’s increased defence outlay follows two preceding developments that indicate the growing sophistication of the Chinese military - first, the testing of an anti-satellite (ASAT) missile in January 2007 that destroyed one of its aging weather satellites, and second, the deployment into the PLA Air Force (PLAAF) of the country’s state-of-the-art jet fighter, the J-10. These reflect China’s concentrated focus on scientific and technological development, and are the results of more than a decade of enhanced military spending. China’s defence outlays increased an average of about 15 percent a year from 1990 to 2005, according to the Chinese military. This year’s jump is the largest reported since military spending rose by 19.4 percent in 2002.
February 2007 Issue: Focus on Russian President Vladimir Putin's India Visit
Russian President Vladimir Putin is busy putting his country's house in order. Doing that also requires setting its old but faltering relationship with India back on even keel. While, India and Russia have maintained cordial relations since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the intensity of the old relationship has been missing. The arms dependence equation (India's on Russia) might not have fundamentally altered but there are signs that this could change. At the same time, India seeks assured energy supplies and state-of-the-art military hardware from Russia. There have been some glitches on these fronts for a variety of reasons. The Putin visit to New Delhi in late January 2007 was an effort to sort out pending issues at the highest level. It was not merely a goodwill visit or an occasion for platitudinous backslapping.
See Index Page for February 2007 issue
January 2007 Issue: Focus on Indian Prime Minister's Visit to Japan
The pieces in India's new Look East Policy are gradually falling into place, nudged to some extent by the United States. While India seeks to engage virtually all nations East Asia, it appears to have specially focused on three countries: Japan, Singapore and Australia. These three countries appear destined to play a large part in India's new Asia-Pacific orientation. Indian Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh's December 2006 visit to Japan clearly was part of a larger emerging scenario. The visit also marked a major milestone in bilateral ties – the warming of a once frosty relationship. This change has brought with it a slew of economic and security promises.
See Index Page for January 2007 issue
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