According to last month’s report in Times of India, Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has announced a more than 10 per cent increase in the country's defense budget for upcoming fiscal year. India is also said to be keen to sign multi-billion dollar defense deals with Israel during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit expected to be in mid-2017. The deals will be for anti-tank missiles, drones and other defense equipment. India is also considering whether to pay for repairs to grounded helicopters and transport planes from Afghanistan's air force, signaling a willingness to step up military assistance for Kabul. New Delhi's readiness to provide more military help, while limited, underlines its desire to help Kabul as other regional powers including Russia and China look to increase their influence in Afghanistan. As far as the defense expenditure goes India's defense budget was increased to 2.74 trillion Indian rupees (INR) ─ excluding pensions ─ compared to previous fiscal year's (2016-17) budget of INR 2.49tr. The allocation is about 12.78pc of total government expenditure, which is INR 21.47tr. This is the second consecutive increase of over 10pc in the defense budget. India’s ever growing defense spending is a clear sign that the war crazed nation wants to build up its Army and has aggressive designs in the region. Pakistan and India both spend heavily on their military; as far as the case of Pakistan goes its hands are forced in this regard as the country has to ensure that the military spending is enough to keep India at bay. Over the recent years Indian defense budget has seen an exponential rise and the country has stuck various multi-billion deals to upgrade its Armed forces. Despite India’s hegemonic designs Pakistan has done well to counter the threat posed by India. A large chunk of India’s defense spending is also used to quash the independence movement in Kashmir, since the killing of freedom fighter Burhan Wani in July last year by Indian forces, the atrocities in Kashmir have increased. A new resistance movement started in the valley after the killing of Burhan Wani and subsequently the Indian Army launched an aggressive assault to quash the resistance, since July last year more than hundred innocent Kashmiris have been slaughtered by Indian forces with many more being picked up by the Indian Armed forces. The use of pellet guns on innocent civilians also saw worldwide condemnation but the brutalities in Occupied Kashmir continue. Pakistan has also increased military cooperation with major regional powers with China and Russia both keen to further enhance military and strategic cooperation with Pakistan. For the first time, a high-level Russian military delegation visited Pakistan’s tribal region along the Afghan border to get first-hand information of the situation in the former strongholds of the militants. The military delegation’s visit came amid growing ties between Pakistan and Russia after decades of mistrust and animosity during the Cold War. The latest announcement of increase in defense budget by India once against confirms the country’s aggressive designs in the region. Having said that, Pakistan’s Armed forces are fully capable of thwarting any Indian aggression with full force, this is a fact that has been reiterated many times by the Pakistani Armed forces. In recent years Pakistan’s strategic cooperation with Russia & China has increased exponentially.
