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http://www.opendemocracy.net/forum/thread/india-from-nonalignment-to-poly-alignment
India FROM NONALIGNMENT TO POLY-ALIGNMENT.
India FROM NONALIGNMENT TO POLY-ALIGNMENT.
Turns from Russian to western arms Procuments policy.
India an important departure from the past where India was more inclined to assert “nonalignment” in international relations and avoid entanglements. Instead of avoiding alignments all together, India is now seeking to align with (just about) everyone, or become “poly aligned.” India still perceives and presents itself to be “nonaligned” many of its actions are increasingly in the direction of “poly-alignment.”
The emerging struggle between the Soviet Union and the countries forming North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the post-World War II period. Eventually, this policy led to India becoming one of the founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in 1955. Nehru’s approach is often described as noncommittal, neutralist, and even immoral. The basic principles of nonalignment also governed the military relationships of the Indian defense establishment, resulting in limited military-to-military contact, and those usually under the auspices of United Nations (UN) peacekeeping missions2 or training at foreign military schools.3 These practices were generally followed by his successors until the early 1990s
Despite being one of the pioneers and founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement, India developed a closer relationship with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. India's strategic and military relations with Moscow and strong socialist policies had an adverse impact on its relations with the United States. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, India began to review its foreign policy in a unipolar world following which; it took steps to develop closer ties with the European Union and the United States.
India plans to buy more than $30 billion in arms over the next five years to fight the low-intensity war in the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir, head off terror attacks in cities, and prepare for potential battle with Pakistan or China. it harbored a notion that the US was viewing India as a counterweight to China. Delhi was also becoming susceptible to the US stratagem to "woo India away from Russia and China and, in the meantime, feeding India's ambition to match China force by force by its ever burgeoning arms sales to India".11th Plan (2007-2012) period is to also induct armed drones like the American ‘Predators’,
Constrained by limited resources and Cold War politics, depended significantly on the single-source, 'cheap' Soviet-era weaponry for its armory. With the end of Cold War and the global political realignment, especially post-9/11, Indian security requirements are no longer viewed adversely by the West.
Nonalignment did not protect India from China in the way that Nehru envisioned it would, nor did the other nonaligned countries rally to India’s aid; (2) in an ironic twist of fate, it was the United States and other powers that India specifically wanted to remain unentangled from that came to India’s rescue with support and equipment. India continued to hold to the lofty ideals of NAM, but the war itself was a wakeup call and a 5-year defense plan was introduced that called for expansion and modernization of the military through foreign purchases, and nearly doubled the defense budget
In 1995, India's defence expenditure was $8.34 billion, and that of Pakistan was $2.96 billion. In the 2004-05 defence budgets, the figures stand at $16.7 billion for India, an increase of $2.23 billion from the fiscal year 2003-04 and $3.32 billion for Pakistan, $0.6 billion more than that for 2003-04. As percentage of GDP, the Indian defence expenditure comes to 2.89, whereas for Pakistan it comes to 5.19.
The Indian budget for 2004-05 witnessed nearly 60 per cent hike in allocation of capital expenditure; parlance for funds provided for arms purchases, from $4.57 billion in 2003-04 to $7.31 billion in 2004-05 India Budget documents showed the defense ministry has spent more than 200 billion rupees (US$4.5 billion, A€3.4 billion) in the current fiscal year to buy aircraft and airplane engines, including installments on Hawk jets purchased from Britain's BAE Systems .2005-06 -830 billion rupees (US$18.9 billion, A€14.2 billion) would be set aside for the defense forces in the federal budget for the next fiscal year, up from the 770 billion rupees allocated in fiscal 2004-2005.
2006-2007 India defense budget was 85509.6 crore rupees This is 7.23 per cent more than the budget in FY 2004-05. As a percentage of GDP, the budget is 2.29 per cent as against 2.39 per cent in the previous year. Taking the revised allocation of Rs 81, 700 at RE (Revised Estimate) stage in FY 2004-05, the increase is 8.94 per cent...2007-2008 india defense budget was 92500 Crore rupees.2008-09 India defense budget 105600 crore rupees10 percent to $26.5 billion for 2008/09 and Share of world defense expenditure is 2.1. Defence spending grow by 25 percent in 2009-10 to $30.176 billion. - Army accounts for the largest share of the 2009-10 budget with an approximate allocation of Rs. 76,680 crores, followed by the Air Force (Rs. 34,432 crores) and the Navy (Rs. 20,604 crores).While the Ordnance Factories (OF) have a budget of Rs.1,505.45 crores, the DRDO’s budget is Rs. 8,481.54 crores.
Arms imports by India increased by more than 100 per cent in 2003 over 2002,
maintaining a constant increase since 2000. According to the same report, India stands second in the list of the recipientsof major conventional weapons in a period 1999-2003, with a total arms import bill of $11,800 million;
After the Cold War, India’s foreign relations have become multi-directional and diversified. Growing realisation that international defence cooperation can supplement diplomatic initiatives towards issues of common interests is increasingly being acknowledged the world over. New geo-strategic realities necessitate improvement of relations with the major powers, such as the US, EU, Russia, Japan.
By 1990, only two other countries had entered into defense agreements with India. Mauritius signed a defense agreement in 1974 whereby India would provide leadership
to the Mauritius Coast Guard from the Indian Navy. Then in 1982 India signed a memorandum of understanding on the supply of defense equipment with France.
As an illustration of the changes, in 2001 Aero India was dominated by Indian companies, attended mostly by Russian, Ukrainian, French, and Israeli companies and had 10 other lightly represented countries. The DefExpo 2008, the fifth biennial defence exhibition on land and maritime systems held recently in New Delhi, conveyed most emphatically India's growing clout in the international arms bazaar, albeit mostly as a buyer. The exhibition, which saw a record 475 participants, including 273 foreign companies from over 30 countries At Aero India 2009, 25 foreign countries were heavily represented and for the first time, the number of foreign exhibitors exceeded the
number of Indian exhibitors.
Indian capital expenditures in defence have been on a steady upswing since 2004-05 when acquisitions went up from around $3.5 billion in value to around $7.5 billion in each of the following three years and then rose to around $11 billion in 2008-09. Adding to the need for, and cost of, the military modernization programme has been the so-called “Revolution in Military Affairs” (RMA)
continued
India FROM NONALIGNMENT TO POLY-ALIGNMENT.
India FROM NONALIGNMENT TO POLY-ALIGNMENT.
Turns from Russian to western arms Procuments policy.
India an important departure from the past where India was more inclined to assert “nonalignment” in international relations and avoid entanglements. Instead of avoiding alignments all together, India is now seeking to align with (just about) everyone, or become “poly aligned.” India still perceives and presents itself to be “nonaligned” many of its actions are increasingly in the direction of “poly-alignment.”
The emerging struggle between the Soviet Union and the countries forming North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the post-World War II period. Eventually, this policy led to India becoming one of the founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in 1955. Nehru’s approach is often described as noncommittal, neutralist, and even immoral. The basic principles of nonalignment also governed the military relationships of the Indian defense establishment, resulting in limited military-to-military contact, and those usually under the auspices of United Nations (UN) peacekeeping missions2 or training at foreign military schools.3 These practices were generally followed by his successors until the early 1990s
Despite being one of the pioneers and founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement, India developed a closer relationship with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. India's strategic and military relations with Moscow and strong socialist policies had an adverse impact on its relations with the United States. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, India began to review its foreign policy in a unipolar world following which; it took steps to develop closer ties with the European Union and the United States.
India plans to buy more than $30 billion in arms over the next five years to fight the low-intensity war in the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir, head off terror attacks in cities, and prepare for potential battle with Pakistan or China. it harbored a notion that the US was viewing India as a counterweight to China. Delhi was also becoming susceptible to the US stratagem to "woo India away from Russia and China and, in the meantime, feeding India's ambition to match China force by force by its ever burgeoning arms sales to India".11th Plan (2007-2012) period is to also induct armed drones like the American ‘Predators’,
Constrained by limited resources and Cold War politics, depended significantly on the single-source, 'cheap' Soviet-era weaponry for its armory. With the end of Cold War and the global political realignment, especially post-9/11, Indian security requirements are no longer viewed adversely by the West.
Nonalignment did not protect India from China in the way that Nehru envisioned it would, nor did the other nonaligned countries rally to India’s aid; (2) in an ironic twist of fate, it was the United States and other powers that India specifically wanted to remain unentangled from that came to India’s rescue with support and equipment. India continued to hold to the lofty ideals of NAM, but the war itself was a wakeup call and a 5-year defense plan was introduced that called for expansion and modernization of the military through foreign purchases, and nearly doubled the defense budget
In 1995, India's defence expenditure was $8.34 billion, and that of Pakistan was $2.96 billion. In the 2004-05 defence budgets, the figures stand at $16.7 billion for India, an increase of $2.23 billion from the fiscal year 2003-04 and $3.32 billion for Pakistan, $0.6 billion more than that for 2003-04. As percentage of GDP, the Indian defence expenditure comes to 2.89, whereas for Pakistan it comes to 5.19.
The Indian budget for 2004-05 witnessed nearly 60 per cent hike in allocation of capital expenditure; parlance for funds provided for arms purchases, from $4.57 billion in 2003-04 to $7.31 billion in 2004-05 India Budget documents showed the defense ministry has spent more than 200 billion rupees (US$4.5 billion, A€3.4 billion) in the current fiscal year to buy aircraft and airplane engines, including installments on Hawk jets purchased from Britain's BAE Systems .2005-06 -830 billion rupees (US$18.9 billion, A€14.2 billion) would be set aside for the defense forces in the federal budget for the next fiscal year, up from the 770 billion rupees allocated in fiscal 2004-2005.
2006-2007 India defense budget was 85509.6 crore rupees This is 7.23 per cent more than the budget in FY 2004-05. As a percentage of GDP, the budget is 2.29 per cent as against 2.39 per cent in the previous year. Taking the revised allocation of Rs 81, 700 at RE (Revised Estimate) stage in FY 2004-05, the increase is 8.94 per cent...2007-2008 india defense budget was 92500 Crore rupees.2008-09 India defense budget 105600 crore rupees10 percent to $26.5 billion for 2008/09 and Share of world defense expenditure is 2.1. Defence spending grow by 25 percent in 2009-10 to $30.176 billion. - Army accounts for the largest share of the 2009-10 budget with an approximate allocation of Rs. 76,680 crores, followed by the Air Force (Rs. 34,432 crores) and the Navy (Rs. 20,604 crores).While the Ordnance Factories (OF) have a budget of Rs.1,505.45 crores, the DRDO’s budget is Rs. 8,481.54 crores.
Arms imports by India increased by more than 100 per cent in 2003 over 2002,
maintaining a constant increase since 2000. According to the same report, India stands second in the list of the recipientsof major conventional weapons in a period 1999-2003, with a total arms import bill of $11,800 million;
After the Cold War, India’s foreign relations have become multi-directional and diversified. Growing realisation that international defence cooperation can supplement diplomatic initiatives towards issues of common interests is increasingly being acknowledged the world over. New geo-strategic realities necessitate improvement of relations with the major powers, such as the US, EU, Russia, Japan.
By 1990, only two other countries had entered into defense agreements with India. Mauritius signed a defense agreement in 1974 whereby India would provide leadership
to the Mauritius Coast Guard from the Indian Navy. Then in 1982 India signed a memorandum of understanding on the supply of defense equipment with France.
As an illustration of the changes, in 2001 Aero India was dominated by Indian companies, attended mostly by Russian, Ukrainian, French, and Israeli companies and had 10 other lightly represented countries. The DefExpo 2008, the fifth biennial defence exhibition on land and maritime systems held recently in New Delhi, conveyed most emphatically India's growing clout in the international arms bazaar, albeit mostly as a buyer. The exhibition, which saw a record 475 participants, including 273 foreign companies from over 30 countries At Aero India 2009, 25 foreign countries were heavily represented and for the first time, the number of foreign exhibitors exceeded the
number of Indian exhibitors.
Indian capital expenditures in defence have been on a steady upswing since 2004-05 when acquisitions went up from around $3.5 billion in value to around $7.5 billion in each of the following three years and then rose to around $11 billion in 2008-09. Adding to the need for, and cost of, the military modernization programme has been the so-called “Revolution in Military Affairs” (RMA)
continued
