August 03, 2017 10:36 IST
The $10.5 billion arms and equipment deal
helped to arrest the recent drift in the 'special and privileged' strategic
partnership, observes Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
Defence Ministers Arun Jaitley and General Sergey Shoigu
jointly chaired the 17th meeting of the India-Russia Inter-governmental
Commission on Military-technical Cooperation on June 21-23, 2017, in Moscow.
The two sides agreed on a roadmap and signed a protocol
to take defence cooperation to a higher level through the joint development of
future weapons systems and military equipment, enhanced joint training and the
exchange of visits.
According to news reports, India will acquire arms and
equipment worth $10.5 billion (Rs 67,604 crore/Rs 676.04 billion) from Russia
including five S-400 Triumf advanced air defence missile systems,
four Grigorivich-class frigates and 200 Kamov-226T light helicopters.
Russia will also lease its second nuclear-powered
submarine to India after INS Chakra. Jaitley invited Russian
companies to participate in defence manufacture in India as part of the
government's 'Make in India' policy.
The meeting helped to arrest the recent drift in the
relationship that has been described as a 'special and privileged' strategic
partnership since 2000.
India's new policy to diversify its sources of defence
procurement, especially its reliance on Western weapons platforms, despite
their greater cost, had not been received well in Russia and the relationship
had tended to deteriorate into a transactional rather than a strategic one.
The relationship with Russia goes back to the time India
got its Independence.
The erstwhile Soviet Union and its successor State Russia
have stood by India on Jammu and Kashmir over several difficult decades.
One-sided UN Security Council resolutions on Jammu-Kashmir were vetoed by the
Russians many times.
The Indo-Soviet treaty of 'peace, friendship and cooperation',
signed before the 1971 War with Pakistan, stood India in good stead. Though the
agreement was not a military alliance, India was perceived by the United States
and its Western allies to have joined the Soviet camp.
The 1971 agreement signalled the de facto end
of non-alignment, which John Foster Dulles, the US secretary of state (1953 to
1959), had called 'immoral'.
As part of its foreign policy, India also did not lag
behind in supporting Soviet or Russian positions. Now, an era of 'Cold Peace'
appears to have dawned over Eastern Europe and Putin's Russia has begun to
gradually drift towards China and its ally Pakistan.
India's acquisition of weapons and defence equipment from
Russia has been the most enduring part of the India-Russia strategic
partnership.......Read rest of article: HERE
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