During the present global turmoil, the Australian government has announced an aggressive defence policy. The White Paper on defence, ‘Defending Australia in the Asia Pacific Century: Force 2030,’ envisages a considerable increase in defence expenditure and a significant military acquisition programme for the Australian Defence Forces (ADF).
The India-Japan partnership is one of the important thrust areas of Japan’s new foreign policy. In the recent past, except for Mori, Koizumi, and Abe, other prime ministers have shown little enthusiasm for improving their relationship with India. However, that trend seems to be changing.
In spite of the seemingly difficult terrain in generating and implementing confidence-building measures in South Asia, all are not doom and gloom. It is thus plausible to make the following conclusions based on existing regional and sub-regional arrangements in South Asia.India and Pakistan, as the two new de facto nuclear weapon states in the nuclear club since 1998, have embarked upon some meaningful nuclear risk reduction measures through a series of bilateral agreements.
Analyze this: A week-long protest, riot and looting in Haiti due to spiralling food prices led to the ouster of the Prime Minister and the announcement of a $10 million feeding program by the World Bank during an emergency meeting in Washington in April. The 9000-strong UN peacekeeping force is still in a dilemma to face the ‘hungry mob’ in Haiti. Approximately 10,000 workers clashed with police near the capital in Bangladesh over the rising food price. At least dozens of people, including 20 police officials, were injured in the violence in Dhaka.
The defence budget outlays for 2008-09 (at Rs.1,05,600 crores) have increased by ten per cent at current prices and by 14.1 per cent vis-à-vis last year’s revised estimates of Rs. 92,500 crores. Provisions for more considerable defence efforts typically not included in the defence budget (for example, outlays for civil defence, coast guard, etc.) could put the figure at Rs. 1 25,000 crore or possibly more.