Need not compare our defence spending with China’s: minister

Pallam Raju says a country's defence budget depends entirely on its security perception.

India need not compare China’s defence spending with its own as budgets depend entirely on security perceptions,central minister Pallam Raju said Monday.

The Minister of State for Defence said,”We need not compare our budget with that of China’s. China is a bigger economy and spends more.”

The minister was asked to react on China’s whopping defence spending. On Monday,China also boosted its domestic security budget by 11.5 per cent to USD 111 billion - apparently to contain unrest in the strategically important Tibet and Xinjiang regions.

Story continues below this ad

The internal security spending,a shade higher than its defence budget,was unveiled at the ongoing National People’s Congress (NPC),ahead of a leadership succession that has sparked fear of instability.

Raju and Army chief V K Singh were in town Monday attending a book release at the Military College of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering at Trimulgherry.

On India’s defence preparedness,Raju said: ”There are internal challenges here and there is need to augment our strategies. We have been spending adequately. The 12th five-year plan envisioned spending would be 100 billion dollars. We are improvising on acquisition of capabilities,increasing manufacturing in public sector and encouraging private sector participation. We see widening of the defence industrial base,” Raju said.

Singh said said: ”Militarily,we look at all our threats. What China is saying is their perspective and we need not speculate.”