Western countries desperate to make a dent in the India-Russia cooperation in the defence domain are peddling lies about ever-solid relations between the two sovereign states, a military veteran has said.
The comments of former Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot, Vijainder K Thakur, came in the wake of a Western media report published on Sunday, in which the publication claimed that New Delhi would abandon Russian weapons in favour of American ones.
It is worth noting that Russia has been the top supplier of military equipment to the South Asian country in the past two decades.
Russia - India's Largest Arms Supplier
According to the data collected by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Moscow supplied weapons worth $60 billion to New Delhi during that period.
Last month, the Eurasian country and the world's largest democratic state firmed up their defence cooperation during Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar's visit to Moscow where they discussed joint production of military items.
Against this backdrop, Thakur underlined that the combination of the Brahmos missile and SU–30 MKI comprise the backbone of India's defence. In both the projects, India and Russia are joined together at the hip.
Information Peddled by Western Media Delusional to an Extreme
"Factor in, India's plans to upgrade its SU 30 MKI fleet with Russian help and joint India, Russia, development of the hypersonic Brahmos 2 and Brahmos NG - and you realise that the information peddled by Western mainstream media is delusional to an extreme," the defence pundit emphasized.
He added that the fact is, that India has long stopped depending on Russia for weapon systems.
Additionally, Thakur pointed out that India procures weapon systems and Transfer of Technology (ToT) from Russia at will, without any dependency creeping in.
"It is the West which keeps us dependent on their weapon systems using a carrot and stick approach," the retired IAF officer opined.
West Facing Perversion of Its Belief
On numerous occasions of late, Indian defense experts have acknowledged that Russian weapons are more aligned with the Indian Armed Forces.
Despite that, the Western press is seemingly continuing with its biased narrative, repetitively claiming that New Delhi is moving away from Moscow.
Thakur explained what was making the West so desperate.
"The ease with which Western hegemony is unravelling all over the world is making the West desperate. The West has long advocated that perception is reality. It is now being forced to face up to the perversion of its belief," he concluded.