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Hike in Indian defence spending disappointing sign: US press

WASHINGTON: A sharp increase in military spending by India just three weeks before a visit by President Clinton to South Asia came as yet another disappointing sign to the United States that prospects for peace in the region remain remote, The Washington Times said on Wednesday.

"While Clinton's visit draws near, tensions continue to climb in the region", the paper said.

It said India was anxious to recover from the humiliation of Kargil fighting, and the shame of having to deal with hijackers of an Indian Airlines jet during Christmas week.

Quoting an unnamed US official, it said that India remains barred, since May 1998 when it set off nuclear blasts, from purchasing US weapons.

"If they moved towards the international mainstream in nuclear proliferation, we'd ease the sanctions", the official said. "Benchmarks have been prepared, but we do not talk about them openly".

The United States wants India to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), or a significant move to limit nuclear proliferation in South Asia.

According to the paper, James Clad, Professor of Asian Studies at Georgetown University, Clinton's visit is increasing tension because it has been poorly planned.

The New York Times reported that the big jump in military spending by India was no surprise. It said it had been expected since Kargil fighting.

"Indeed, Pakistan is deeply in debt. But India, too, has a ballooning fiscal deficit that needs attention", the paper added.

The paper said the rise in India's military budget was a repudiation of the view that nuclear weapons would buy a better defence for less money.

"Going nuclear hasn't done much for India's security, has it?" the paper quoted P R Chari, director of the Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies in New Delhi as saying. "The country seems to be moving in several directions all at once", the paper said.ÑAPP