Article Posted on : - Jun 06, 2014

WASHINGTON (PTI): India's annual defence budget is just one-third of that of China despite the tensions that remain along their shared border, according to a Pentagon report.

The official annual defence budget of China in the year 2013 was USD 119.5 billion against India's USD 39.2 billion, the Pentagon said Thursday in its annual report on China, which was submitted to the Congress.

For comparison, the national defence budget of Russia in the year 2013 was USD 69.5 followed by that of Japan at USD 56.9 billion. The annual budget of South Korea was USD 31 billion.

"Despite improving political and economic relations between China and India, tensions remain along their shared 4,057 km border, most notably over Arunachal Pradesh, which China asserts is part of Tibet, and over the Aksai Chin region at the western end of the Tibetan Plateau," the Pentagon said.

"In 2009, China and India said they would establish a hotline between their Prime Ministers after exchanging barbs over the status of the border region of Arunachal Pradesh," said the report titled "Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2014" that runs into over 90 pages.

"By 2011, however, progress still lagged as India reportedly found trouble obtaining suitable encryption technology to establish the hotline.

Chinese and Indian officials met in late September 2013 to finalise the text of the Border Defence Cooperation Agreement, which will supplement existing procedures managing the interaction of troops along the Line of Actual Control," the Pentagon said.