Friday, Apr 19, 2024 | Last Update : 12:04 PM IST
India-Russia meet to bolster defence ties
To set the tone, two agreements were signed in the event between India’s Hindustan.
New Delhi: In an apt signal seeking to reassure Russia that the traditional Indo-Russia military ties will continue amid a perception that India may be drifting towards the United States in an era of changed global geopolitics, more than 100 Russian defence industry representatives met an equal number of their Indian counterparts on Friday at a key event organized by India’s defence ministry.
The meet, inaugurated jointly by defence minister Arun Jaitley and Russian industry and trade minister Denis Manturov, is part of the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Indian and Russia.
Admitting that such a conference has been long overdue, Mr Jaitley said of the bilateral ties: “India-Russia military technical cooperation has graduated from a simple buyer-seller relation to the one involving joint research, development and production of advanced defence systems. Brahmos Missile System as well as the licensed production of SU-30 in India are examples of such flagship cooperation.”
Admitting that India is “definitely not happy” with the label of one of the largest defence importers, the minister said: “Though many of the defence platforms, particularly Russian platforms, are made in India under licensed production, they have very high import content because most of the components, parts, sub-systems are still imported. We need to review this trend and increase the indigenous content in our defence capital procurement.”
It has been a long-standing grievance of the armed forces that supply of critical spares and equipment from Russia takes a long time affecting maintenance of military systems procured from that country.
On his part, Mr Manturov pointed the long gestation period needed to clinch projects in India and underscored the need to cut delays. “We must work together to reduce this time period”, he said adding that co-production of civilian equipment should also be looked at.
While the meeting seeks to explore ways for deeper bilateral engagement in defence production, it will address issues related to life-cycle support and maintenance of major Russian-origin equipments and platforms like the Sukhoi 30 MKI aircraft, Mi-17 choppers, MiG 29K aircraft, INS Vikramaditya and T-90 battle tanks—all of Russian origin. To set the tone, two agreements were signed in the event between India’s Hindustan
Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation and United Engine Corporation for long term supply of spares and technical assistance for Sukhoi 30MKI aircraft for five years.
