Andrei Krasov
Russia has no reason to fear the increase of China’s expenditure on defence, said Deputy head of the Duma Committee on defense Andrei Krasov. His words leads to “Interfax” on Saturday, March 4.
“Russia and China are good neighbors. I don’t think that the increase in military budget of the Chinese people’s Republic as it would affect our security,” he said.
Krasov believes that the growth of China’s military expenditures may be a response to the increase in the military budget of the United States. “I don’t think this will violate the good-neighborly relations between our countries”, — he stressed.
China will increase its defense spending this year by 7 percent. As explained the press-Secretary of the national people’s Congress people’s Congress Fu Ying, the costs amount to 1.3 percent of GDP.
In 2016, China’s military budget was planned to increase by 7.6 percent compared with the previous year to 954 billion yuan (about 146 billion dollars). Expenditures for 2015 were scheduled at 887 billion yuan, up 10.1 percent higher than the previous year’s level.