The defence supply deal struck following the
22nd Russia-India Annual Summit marks a positive development for
India, a military veteran has told
Sputnik India. The outcome of President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting at the Kremlin on Tuesday will help address a major challenge for the country's security needs, said retired Brigadier Arun Sahgal, the Executive Director of the Forum for Strategic Initiative (FSI), a policy think-tank focusing on national security, diplomacy and Track II Dialogue, and a Senior Fellow at Delhi Policy Group (DPG).
The India-Russia agreements on manufacturing military spares were crucial as nearly 60 to70 percent of India's defence hardware was of Russian-origin, Sahgal believes.
He asserted that in spite of India's "multi-faceted defence partnerships" with other countries, Russia would strongly remain a priority for the country's foreign policy.
"We have evolved a modus operandi with Russia on cooperating in military technologies," he stressed. "Russia has been more than forthcoming. Under no circumstances will India forego one for the other."
Saghal pointed out that New Delhi would remain committed to developing defence ties with Russia in critical and futuristic technologies as well, as both sides "have developed a very detailed and deep ecosystem" in the field.
Additionally,
metallurgy and super components were of the potential areas of bilateral partnership, Sahgal said. Further, he reckoned that Russia also had a lot to offer in the realms of
underwater domain awareness capabilities, ballistic missile and space technologies.
However, under the Make in India policy, the country aspires to become a
major defence exporter, in line with Modi's policy of reducing the arms imports bill by developing weapons and platforms domestically.
Since 2020, India has published five 'Positive Indigenisation Lists', mandating the procurement of 500 pieces of armed equipment and 3,000 components and subsystems exclusively from national companies.
According to Sahgal, the first export of the BrahMos supersonic missile batteries to the Philippines could serve as a "model" for India's other foreign partners as far as co-development and co-production under Make in India is concerned.
India and Russia are already working together on licensed production of T-90 tanks, Su-30 MKI fighter jets,
AK-203 rifles and BrahMos missiles, as well as the supply of MiG-29 and Kamov helicopters, the INS Vikramaditya (formerly Admiral Gorshkov) aircraft carrier and S-400 surface-to-air missile systems.