India will create an army corps of 50,000 troops to protect its border with China, in the latest sign that New Delhi sees China as a more significant long-term military threat than Pakistan.
The creation of the so-called mountain strike corps, which would cost some $11bn over seven years, was approved by the cabinet committee on security, according to official sources quoted by the Press Trust of India. India has 1.3m active troops.
No announcement was made by the committee, which is chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and includes the ministers of defence, home affairs, foreign affairs and finance. But Indian officials and defence analysts said the new corps had been approved in principle after years of discussion.