Page 2 of 2 India's voracious appetite
for arms By Siddharth
Srivastava
industry and is a high-priority
country for EADS, because it offers market
potential and solid competence in aerospace and
defense." EADS has announced that it will invest
up to $2.5 billion over 15 years in high-tech
research and production sites.
Israel has
overtaken France, the United Kingdom, Sweden and
other countries to become the second-largest
defense supplier to
India,
with the value of arms transfers working out close
to $1 billion each year for the period 2002-05,
with 2006 a new high.
Russia has managed
to retain its position as India's top defense
partner, notching up more than $1.5 billion every
year because of the deeply entrenched relations
between the two countries that hark back to the
1960s. However, its position is under severe
threat.
The US is another challenger
(after the easing of sanctions) to lead pitched
government boardroom battles in India.
Given Washington's extraordinary decision
to allow India to acquire nuclear-energy
technology on the international market (estimated
to be worth more than $100 billion), the Pentagon
expects the country to purchase as much as $5
billion worth of conventional military equipment.
Currently, US defense exports to India are
at a low $300 million range. Washington will want
these figures to improve substantially.
India and the US inked a 10-year defense
agreement in June 2005 - the New Framework for the
US-India Defense Relationship - signed by then
defense ministers Pranab Mukherjee and Donald
Rumsfeld.
The agreement is vast in scope
and envisages a broad range of joint activities,
including multinational operations, strengthening
the two militaries to promote security and defeat
terrorism, and deepening capacity to cope with the
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Last year's US Congressional Research
Service report, "Conventional Arms Transfers to
Developing Nations", says India bought more weapon
systems than any other country in the developing
world in 2005, just as it did in 2004. India
signed arms deals worth almost double the value of
those signed by China in 2005.
The value
of arms-transfer agreements inked by India in 2005
stood at $5.4 billion (it was $5.7 billion in
2004). Saudi Arabia was second with $3.4 billion
($2.9 billion in 2004), while China ranked third
($2.8 billion in 2005 against $2.2 billion in
2004). Pakistan came sixth ($1.7 billion in 2005).
According to the report, India has also
been the largest arms purchaser in the developing
world for the period from 1998 to 2005, sealing
deals worth $20.7 billion.
At the same
time, India continues to spend a little less than
2.5% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on
defense, despite the armed forces regularly
demanding that the figure be raised to at least
3%. In contrast, the figures for Pakistan and
China hover around 4.5% of their GDPs.
Siddharth Srivastava is a New
Delhi-based journalist.
(Copyright
2007 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.
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