Power Equations Seen Shifting With India Coming Closer To Russia Over 10 Year Military Deal
Russia -India and Russia have now concluded a 10 year long military deal. For starters, the deal will see the AK-203 rifles replacing the INSAS rifles that were inducted more than three decades ago.
The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) has approved the project last week. The modalities were decided at the Sushma Swaraj Bhawan, where Defence minister Rajnath Singh met with Russian defence minister Sergey Shoigu in New Delhi recently.
The deal has come through in Uttar Pradesh, Amethi district India for a much-awaited equipment need worth ₹5,100 crore for the joint production of more than 500,000 AK-203 assault rifles.
The deal has come through obviously after the Centre gave its nod to the production to happen in India. Strangely, the deal comes through a little before the annual summit between India and Russia.
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Apart from the bilateral meeting between the two defence ministers, the other events scheduled before the summit include a meeting between external affairs minister S. Jaishankar and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, and the inaugural 2+2 dialogue of the defence and foreign ministers.
There are other agreements to be made in areas of trade, space, technology and energy. This after decades that Kremlin has decided to make a trip to India. The signs are clear- power games are shifting towards India and everyone is acknowledging this.
India also came through with Kremlin over S-400 Air Defensse Systems despite major American threats to secondary sanctions. But India has clearly said that it intends to follows a policy of strategic autonomy when it comes to defence procurements and national security interests.
At least 15 groups focused on economic cooperation between India and Russia have met virtually over the past two years amid the Covid-19 pandemic and the two sides have increased the target for two-way investments to $50 billion by 2025 as the earlier target of $30 billion had been achieved in 2018.