Latest news with #defense
Free Malaysia Today
5 hours ago
- Politics
- Free Malaysia Today
Pakistan PM thanks Turkey's Erdogan for ‘resolute support' against India
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (right) welcomes Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif at the Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul. (Reuters pic) ANKARA : Turkey's President Recep Tayip Erdogan on Sunday held talks with Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif who said he thanked the Turkish leader for his support during Pakistan's recent military showdown with India. Sharif announced the meeting with Erdogan in a post on the X platform. He had 'thanked him for his resolute support to Pakistan in the recent Pakistan Indian standoff which resulted in Pakistan's overwhelming victory', he said. A Turkish presidency statement said only that the two sides had discussed 'cooperation between the two countries in all fields, in particular in energy, transport and defence' as well as information and technology sharing 'in the fight against terrorism'. India and Pakistan agreed a ceasefire two weeks ago after a four-day conflict, in which more than 70 people were killed in cross-border missile, drone and artillery fire. India had blamed Pakistan for a deadly attack in disputed Kashmir. Turkey had appealed for the two sides to avoid an all-out war. Turkey and Pakistan, both Muslim-majority nations, have long-standing ties.
Arab News
9 hours ago
- Business
- Arab News
Pakistan to hike defense spending in FY26 budget to counter India's ‘hegemonistic designs' — minister
Planning and Development Minister Ahsan Iqbal said on Sunday Pakistan's defense spending would be hiked in the budget for the next fiscal year as the military would 'certainly require' more financial resources to defend the country against India. Pakistan and India attacked each other with missiles, drones and artillery earlier this month in the worst military confrontation in decades between the two nuclear-armed neighbors. The conflict erupted after an attack in April on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir that New Delhi blamed on Pakistan. Islamabad has denied the charge. The tensions erupted into a military confrontation on May 7 after India first hit what it said was 'terrorism infrastructure' in Pakistan and Azad Kashmir with missiles, and Pakistan retaliated, saying it had downed six Indian fighter jets. Fighting between the two nations continued for four days until a ceasefire was reached on May 10. 'Obviously, Pakistan will do anything within its reach to make its defense impregnable,' Ahsan told Arab News in a telephone interview when asked if there were plans to increase defense spending in the budget for fiscal year 2025-26, which will be unveiled on June 10. 'Our military would certainly require more financial resources to defend the country against the hegemonistic designs of Modi.' Ahsan declined to disclose the new figures for the defense allocation. Beijing is Pakistan's primary supplier of military equipment. This includes more than half its 400-odd fighters, primarily the JF-17 but also the J-10C. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), China has sold Pakistan $8.2 billion in arms since 2015. China was the world's fourth-largest arms exporter from 2020-24, and Pakistan was China's top customer. Islamabad consumed 63 percent – nearly two thirds – of Chinese weapon sales in that period. In response to a question about media reports China was fast-tracking delivery of its advanced J-35A fifth-generation stealth fighters to Pakistan, with the first batch expected by early 2026, planning minister Ahsan said: 'Pakistan's fighter jets have already done well against India and the country will do anything it can to make it's defenses stronger.' The finance ministry declined to comment on a planned hike in defense spending but an official privy to budget talks within the government and with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said: 'We are discussing all the issues including Pakistan's revenues and defense with the IMF but nothing has been finalized yet.' An IMF official said the lender did not comment on any country's defense budget. An IMF mission led by Nathan Porter visited Pakistan last week to discuss the country's new fiscal plan but returned without reaching an agreement. 'We will continue discussions toward agreeing over the authorities' FY26 budget over the coming days,' the Washington-based lender said in a statement on May 24. The media wing of the Pakistan army declined to comment on the issue immediately. 'WAR-LIKE SITUATION' Two days after the ceasefire, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned Pakistan New Delhi would target 'terrorist hideouts' across the border again if there were new attacks on India and would not be deterred by what he called Islamabad's 'nuclear blackmail.' 'In the coming days, we will measure every step of Pakistan... what kind of attitude Pakistan will adopt,' Modi said, adding that India had only 'paused' strikes. Ashfaq Tola, the chairman of Karachi-based tax and corporate advisory firm Tola Associates and an adviser to past Pakistani governments on the budget-making process, said an over 40 percent hike in the current defense budget of Rs2.122 trillion ($7.53 billion) could be expected in the new financial plan. 'Considering the ongoing situation, the country's defense budget should stand at as much as Rs3,000 billion ($10.6 billion),' Tola said. 'In such a big conflict, you need a lot of ammunition, surveillance, border movement, border troops management. To finance all these requirements, they will have to allocate more money this time.' In a report published on Saturday, Tola Associates proposed raising the defense budget to Rs2.8 trillion, a 32 percent increase compared to the last fiscal year, owing to a 'war-like situation' with India. 'The budgeted defense expenditure stood at Rs2,122 billion for FY25 while the actual expenditure till March 2025 was Rs1,424 billion. [However], due to the ongoing war situation with the neighboring country, defense spending may increase by up to 50 percent in the Q4FY25,' the report said. 'Given the current regional tensions and the need to ensure Pakistan's defense preparedness, we estimate total defense spending to reach Rs2.4 trillion by June 2025.' After debt servicing, defense is the second biggest drain on Pakistan's revenue, which the IMF, since approving a $7 billion bailout program for Islamabad last September, wants the government to increase through taxing incomes from agriculture, real estate and retail sectors in the new budget. Pakistan's historically large defense budget is attributed to a complex interplay of factors, primarily driven by regional security concerns and internal challenges. These include the perceived security threat from India as well as internal instability and security threats like terrorism. Additionally, debt servicing and the allocation of resources toward military interests have also played a role in shaping the budget. In the last five years, Pakistan has increased its defense expenditures more than 60 percent to Rs 2.12 trillion ($7.53 billion), or two percent of GDP, according to data compiled by Karachi-based research firm Arif Habib Ltd. 'An increase [in defense spending] is certainly a possibility. The recent clash with India emboldened Pakistan's military, as it has regained public goodwill and popularity that will give it the confidence to take potentially politically risky steps,' Michael Kugelman, a South Asia specialist based in Washington, told Arab News. 'That includes ramping up an already-sizable defense budget at a moment when the economy, despite some recent stabilization on the macro level, remains fragile.'
Irish Times
10 hours ago
- Politics
- Irish Times
The Irish Times view on Germany's new troop deployment: a sea change to the east
German chancellor Friedrich Merz told the cheering crowd in Lithuania's capital last week that 'Protecting Vilnius is protecting Berlin.' Inaugurating the first permanent deployment of Germany's military on foreign soil since the second World War, Merz pledged to help defend 'every inch' of Nato. Vladimir Putin's brutal war in Ukraine and his expansionist ambitions, notably aimed at countries he still regards as part of the Soviet Union, have buried any historical anti-German animus in nervous Baltic states. It has also removed Germany's historic reluctance to re-arm and deploy abroad. Today the UK has 900 soldiers stationed in Estonia and Canada, has 1,900 in Latvia. Germany's will in time be the biggest of the ramped up Nato deployments in the Baltic states. The German deployment currently numbers some 400 soldiers, to be increased by 2027 to a full 5,000, plus their families. By then the Lithuanians, at a cost close to €1.5 billion, will have built what amounts to a small town, including a school, day-care centres as well as barracks and shops, to accommodate them. The tank battalion will be stationed about 30km from the Belarusian border, its priority to safeguard the strategically critical 100 kilometre border with Poland, the 'Suwalki Gap', the only land link between the Baltic states and the rest of the EU. READ MORE The German deployment is a major manifestation of former Chancellor Olaf Shulz's radically new defence strategy, Zeitenwende – or 'sea change'– in response to the 2002 invasion of Ukraine. Merz has taken it on board with enthusiasm , backing Nato's five per cent of GDP defence spending target and pledging to spend up to €100 billion on re-equipping his country's neglected armed forces. The Bundeswehr marching through Vilnius, no less than the speedy accessions of Finland and Sweden to Nato, are the real fruit of Putin's bloody, misguided, and deeply counterproductive bid to curtail Nato's reach.
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
German chief of defence orders swift expansion of warfare capabilities
By Sabine Siebold BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany's Chief of Defence, Carsten Breuer, has ordered the German military to be fully equipped with weapons and other material by 2029, a document seen by Reuters on Sunday shows. By 2029, Russia may have reconstituted its forces sufficiently to attack NATO territory, according to estimates by Breuer and other senior military officials at NATO. The latest document, entitled "Directive Priorities for the Bolstering of Readiness", which Breuer signed on May 19, said Germany will meet the goal with the help of funds made available by the loosening of the country's debt brake in March. The defence ministry in Berlin did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In the directive, Breuer sets priorities for the weapons that should be acquired or developed most urgently, reflecting in part priorities NATO has previously laid out. Among them, Breuer lists the strengthening of Germany's depleted air defences, in particular with a view to intercepting drones. Last year, sources told Reuters that NATO will request Berlin to at least quadruple its air defences, ranging from systems with a longer range, such as the Patriot, to short-range systems. Another priority is a capability to launch deep precision strikes, according to the document, effectively hitting targets at a distance of more than 500 kilometres (310 miles) and far behind enemy lines. In addition to pushing for Germany's ammunition stocks to be replenished, Breuer also orders Germany to raise its stockpiling targets for all types of ammunition. Other priorities listed in the document are the swift expansion of Germany's capabilities in electronic warfare and the establishment of a resilient system of "offensive and defensive capabilities" in space. In a speech in mid-May, Army Chief Alfons Mais said a large-scale social and industrial mobilisation meant Russian forces were rapidly gaining firepower. "From 2029, at the latest, the Russian forces will be capable of a conventional aggression against NATO territory on a large scale," he said. "But they can start testing us much sooner."
Al Jazeera
11 hours ago
- Business
- Al Jazeera
Turkiye's Erdogan meets Pakistan PM in Istanbul weeks after India conflict
Turkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has held talks with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Istanbul, weeks after a military conflict between Islamabad and New Delhi. The two countries would strive to boost cooperation, particularly in defence, energy and transportation, Erdogan's office said on Sunday. Erdogan told Sharif it was in the interest of Turkey and Pakistan to increase solidarity in education, intelligence sharing and technological support in the fight against 'terrorism', Turkiye president's office said. The meeting in the Turkish commercial capital comes as Ankara faces a backlash from India over its alleged supply of weapons to Islamabad during the recent conflict between the two South Asian neighbours. Ankara has denied sending weapons to Pakistan. In recent weeks, Erdogan had expressed solidarity with Pakistan after India conducted military attacks across nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. New Delhi said the attacks were in response to an April 22 attack on tourists by armed fighters in Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir, which left 25 Indians and one Nepalese national dead. India has accused Pakistan of indirectly supporting the attack – which Pakistan denies. Turkiye had warned of a risk of an 'all-out war' between the nuclear-armed neighbours and called on both sides to 'show good sense' to reduce the tensions, while expressing support for Islamabad's request for an international inquiry into the Pahalgam attack. The two countries announced a ceasefire on May 10. Turkiye and Pakistan have long had close economic and military links. In February, Erdogan visited Islamabad, during which the two countries signed 24 cooperation agreements to bolster bilateral ties. In a sign of India's displeasure with Ankara, India's External Affairs Ministry spokesperson last week said that 'relations are built on the basis of sensitivities to each other's concerns'. 'We expect Turkey to strongly urge Pakistan to end its support to cross-border terrorism and take credible and verifiable actions against the terror ecosystem it has harbored for decades,' Randhir Jaiswal said during a press briefing on Thursday. Meanwhile, grocery shops and leading online fashion retailers in India declared a boycott of Turkish products ranging from chocolates, coffee, jams, and cosmetics, as well as clothing. Indian fashion websites owned by Flipkart retail and billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance removed numerous Turkish apparel brands from their sites. India's annual $2.7bn in goods imports from Turkiye, however, are dominated by mineral fuels and precious metals. We still do not know how the bilateral trade will be impacted amid the strained ties. Indian travel companies also suspended bookings of flights, hotels and holiday packages to Turkiye 'in solidarity with India's national interest and sovereignty'. India has not officially ordered companies to boycott Turkish products. But the country's civil aviation ministry on May 15 revoked the security clearance of the Turkish-based aviation ground handling firm Celebi.
