EXPLANATOR
Russia and India have an extended historical past of defence cooperation. What weapons have they exchanged earlier than and what is going to they focus on this time?
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is making his first go to to Russia because the invasion of Ukraine to debate points together with defence and arms offers.
Particulars of any new arms gross sales offers to be finalised between the 2 nations are usually not but identified, however Russia’s want for arms and ammunition for the battle in Ukraine is known to be driving the talks. Modi could provide vital Indian industrial help to Russia for the battle in Ukraine in trade for power and army expertise. The help could be sensible, however wouldn’t contain India publicly backing Russia’s battle effort.
Monday and Tuesday’s journey serves as a reminder to the world that India-Russia ties – notably in defence and arms – return a long time and stay robust.
What’s the historical past of India-Russia defence offers?
For the previous decade, India has targeted on boosting its personal military-industrial advanced, telling worldwide protection contractors that “Made in India” is a precedence and asserting that expertise transfers to Indian firms are a central a part of any deal, whether or not with Russia or elsewhere.
Nevertheless, India’s armed forces nonetheless rely closely on armoured divisions and 97 per cent of its 3,740 tanks are Russian-made.
Whereas India has tried to diversify its defence purchases and partially decouple itself from Russian arms, it’s primarily Russian firms which might be serving to India’s defence industries mature at a speedy tempo.
A day earlier than Modi left for Moscow this week, Russia’s state-owned export firm Rostec signed a deal to fabricate superior armor-piercing “Mango” shells for the T-90 tank in India.
In what different methods have India and Russia cooperated on defence issues to date?
Their defence cooperation has been substantial. The Brahmos supersonic anti-ship missile, for instance, was collectively designed by Indian and Russian engineers for the Indian armed forces and first examined in 2001.
Brahmos is a fusion of the names of the Brahmaputra and Moskva rivers, symbolising the cooperation between the 2 nations. The missile is quick and highly effective and may ship a 300 kg (660 lb) warhead at 3 times the velocity of sound with an accuracy of lower than one metre (3.3 ft). It has since been exported to the Philippines.
Russian joint ventures with India additionally embrace the manufacture of 35,000 Kalashnikov AK203 assault rifles for the Indian Military, licensed manufacturing of superior T-90 tanks and Sukhoi Su-30-MKI fourth-generation fighter plane, and upkeep amenities for India’s MiG-29 fighter jets. Additionally they collaborate on the manufacture of the Konkurs anti-tank guided missile.
What else will Modi and Putin focus on?
Low cost Russian oil has been a mainstay of India’s financial system for greater than a 12 months. It has been a significant recipient of oil shipments that flout U.S. and European Union sanctions.
Nuclear energy can be at stake within the negotiations in Moscow. A number of of India’s nuclear reactors are Russian-made and talks are underway for India to purchase each floating and sea-based Russian nuclear reactors, helpful for distant areas and likewise for bigger, longer-range submarines and warships.
The place will Russia get the weapons it wants for the battle in Ukraine?
Moscow is determined to fulfill its armed forces’ fixed demand for artillery and tank ammunition of all sorts for its battle in Ukraine.
The Russian armed forces are conservatively firing 8,000 shells a day. At a mean price of $4,000 every, Russia is spending $32 million on daily basis in its effort to interrupt the impasse on the battlefields of Ukraine.
Whereas Russia’s financial system is technically on a battle footing, Putin has nonetheless needed to courtroom North Korea and Vietnam, each operators of Russian-calibre artillery and with massive home munitions factories, particularly for the much-needed 152mm shell.
With US help for Ukraine nonetheless being questioned and European and Turkish munitions factories filling the void, Ukraine and Russia are more and more counting on different nations for the assistance they should preserve one another at bay.
Each nations are on the lookout for new companions in hopes of out-producing the opposite and offering the firepower they see as crucial to show the tide of what has turn into a static battle. Russia hopes that, together with North Korea and Vietnam, Indian trade will help present Russia with the instruments it must defeat Ukraine.