Guns in the east

It has gone mostly unnoticed in India, which focuses almost exclusively on defence issues in the country’s immediate neighbourhood. But East Asia is witnessing its biggest arms build-up since presumably World War II. Vietnam, for instance, has increased its defence budget by 70 per cent this year, and Indonesia last month announced a 35 per cent step-up in its defence outlay. At about the same time South Korea announced the setting up of a new naval base on a large southern island, while Indonesia has decided to add a third naval fleet by 2014. The US, meanwhile, has agreed to retro-fit 145 F-16s of the Taiwanese air force.

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