NEW DELHI: India and Russia have inked a defence cooperation agreement, outlining the road for new acquisitions as well as fast pacing the ongoing projects, officials in the Defence Ministry said here. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and his Russian counterpart signed the agreement in Moscow yesterday at the end of India-Russia Intergovernmental Commission for Military-Technical Cooperation meeting.
The agreement, is aimed at developing bilateral Russian-Indian relations in the military-technical field, said the MoD officials.
Mr Parrikar described Russia as India’s “privilege” strategic partner. The two sides understood to have finalised the biggest ever defence deal for acquiring S-400 anti-ballistic missile systems from Moscow at a cost of around Rs 70,000 crore.
The mega deal, along with an agreement to get another nuclear submarine, is likely to be formally signed during the visit to Russia of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who would be travelling to Moscow sometime in December for an annual summit with President Vladimir Putin.
New Delhi’s decision to go for S-400, which can kill an enemy missile from a range of 400 km, has come barely six months after the eastern neighbour China deciding to acquire six S-400 systems from Moscow, triggered a panic button in Taiwan, which held it as an aggressive posturing on part of Beijing.
“One S-400 system is capable of providing foolproof shield to an area in around 20 km of radius, for example high security Lutyens’ zone in capital,” said the sources, outlining the enormity of demand, that India needs to cater for in future, for such a missile system, which is said to the world’s most potent air defence system of the present time.
India, according to sources, also finalised a contract for acquiring another nuclear-powered submarine for ten years of lease from Moscow, which will also be signed Mr Modi’s visit.
“The sides positively assessed the progress of work on the design of a promising multifunctional fighter aircraft and a multi-purpose cargo aircraft, a licensed production of Su-30MKI fighters and T-90S tanks, the implementation of the program for the creation and production of BrahMos missiles,” the Russian press service said in a statement. (UNI)
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