Reuters reported that India continues to cooperate with Russia despite its willingness to work with the US, noting that more than 65% of Indian weapons are produced in Russia.
Reuters quoted security officials as saying that India’s billions of dollars of US arms purchases were not about changing its reliance on Russian defense equipment and moving towards the West, as the issue was more about India’s development of a domestic military industry.
India is the world’s largest arms importer, but most of its major arms purchases now involve co-production or technology transfer decisions, no matter which country it is dealing with.
According to the Indian Ministry of Defense, “The war in Ukraine has negatively impacted some military supplies to India, which has increased New Delhi’s desire to diversify imports or replace them with local industry.”
Over the past 20 years, India has purchased more than $60 billion worth of weapons, of which 65 percent, or $39 billion, comes from Russia, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said that India plans to order more than $100 billion worth of weapons from the domestic military industry over the next decade.
Expert Derek Grossman of the RAND Corporation, which is part of QUAD (which includes the US, Japan and Australia), noted that India is working to strengthen relations with the West, but does not abandon long-standing contacts with Russia.
He added that if New Delhi refuses to cooperate with Moscow, Washington will remain cautious in transferring its technology to India, and Reuters concluded that New Delhi will not refuse to cooperate with Moscow, despite strengthening relations with Washington.
Source: Reuters