India will deploy 100,000 soldiers along its border with China over the next five years, The Times of India reported Wednesday.

An article published by The Times of India

"We have proposed to increase our strength by another 90,000 to one lakh (100,000) troops and that has been cleared by the Defense Ministry. The proposal is at present awaiting clearance from the Finance Ministry," army sources told Indian local media.

"India's troop increase along the disputed border areas with China is an offensive act," said Zhao Gancheng, director of South Asia Studies at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies (SIIS).

Zhao commented that India's proposed troop increase violates the Agreement on the Maintenance of Peace and Tranquility along the Line of Actual Control in the China-India Border Areas signed by China and India in 1993. He added that it also violates the Agreement on Confidence-Building Measures in the Military Field along the Line of Actual Control in the China-India Border Areas signed by the two countries in 1996.

According to these two agreements, China and India should reduce their troop numbers along the disputed border areas and each party must inform the other if it plans any new troop deployments, Zhao said.

According to the Daily Sunshine's Guan Yao, the U.S. strategy to use India as leverage against China has greatly increased India's confidence. India is acting so aggressively because it knows it has the support of the U.S.

Guan believes that India's proposed troop increase sends a warning to China. "We must keep an eye on this restless neighbor and stay alert in case it alters any of its strategies," he said.

Initially, India's main aim in developing its western areas was to counter Pakistan, according to Zhang Guihong, a professor at Fudan University's Institute of International Studies. Zhang added that India has shifted its development focus to the east to contain China, as little progress has been made on the China-India border issue.

"Meanwhile India has realized its military backwardness, Zhang said. "It has been making efforts to promote military modernization in an attempt to catch up with China."

India believes that China is currently focused on the South China Sea, so its troop increase may not attract too much attention, Zhang added.

But Zhang pointed out that relations between these two influential Asian neighbors are generally sound and stable, despite some conflicts along border areas in recent years.