section_path: Foreign, economic, and strategic relations
section_name: Foreign, economic, and strategic relations
paragraph_text: Foreign, economic, and strategic relations
  
  India became a republic in 1950, remaining a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. India strongly supported decolonisation in Africa and Asia in the 1950s; it played a leading role in the Non-Aligned Movement. After cordial relations initially, India went to war with China in 1962. It was widely thought to have been humiliated. Another military conflict followed in 1967 in which India successfully repelled a Chinese attack. India has had uneasy relations with its western neighbour, Pakistan. The two countries went to war in 1947, 1965, 1971, and 1999. Three of these wars were fought over the disputed territory of Kashmir. In contrast, the 1971 war followed India's support for the independence of Bangladesh. After the 1965 war with Pakistan, India began to pursue close military and economic ties with the Soviet Union; by the late 1960s, the Soviet Union was its largest arms supplier. India has played a key role in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation and the World Trade Organization. The nation has supplied 100,000 military and police personnel in 35 UN peacekeeping operations.
  
  China's nuclear test of 1964 and threats to intervene in support of Pakistan in the 1965 war caused India to produce nuclear weapons. India conducted its first nuclear weapons test in 1974 and carried out additional underground testing in 1998. India has signed neither the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty nor the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, considering both to be flawed and discriminatory. India maintains a " no first use " nuclear policy and is developing a nuclear triad capability as a part of its " Minimum Credible Deterrence " doctrine.
  
  Since the end of the Cold War, India has increased its economic, strategic, and military cooperation with the United States and the European Union. In 2008, a civilian nuclear agreement was signed between India and the United States. Although India possessed nuclear weapons at the time and was not a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it received waivers from the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Nuclear Suppliers Group, ending earlier restrictions on India's nuclear technology and commerce; India subsequently signed co-operation agreements involving civilian nuclear energy with Russia, France, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
  
  The President of India is the supreme commander of the nation's armed forces; with 1.45 million active troops, they compose the world's second-largest military. It comprises the Indian Army, the Indian Navy, the Indian Air Force, and the Indian Coast Guard. The official Indian defence budget for 2011 was US$36.03 billion, or 1.83% of GDP. Defence expenditure was pegged at US$70.12 billion for fiscal year 2022–23 and, increased 9.8% than previous fiscal year. India is the world's second-largest arms importer; between 2016 and 2020, it accounted for 9.5% of the total global arms imports. Much of the military expenditure was focused on defence against Pakistan and countering growing Chinese influence in the Indian Ocean.