Why India Is looking Beyond Russia?

By: Satyam Pathak

Updated: 03 April

Amid the threats emanating from its two hostile neighbours China and Pakistan, today India is looking forward to strengthen and modernize its military. It has been estimated that India is going to spend more than $250 billion in the next decade to achieve this objective. It has recognized US as a country which could help it in its military preparedness for future. But New Delhi is in dilemma whom to choose as its military partner for defence deals and technological needs in future. There are two tough choices – US and Russia both of which always remained in opposite directions whenever it came to bilateral relations.

For almost five decades, India has been mainly dependent on Russia for boosting its military preparedness. But the question is how long India can keep on depending on Russia taking in consideration the changing global geopolitical scenario.

India is today seeking for a more reliable global ally for its military and technological needs as the warmth of decades old India-Russia defence ties seems to be evaporating. There are multiple reasons of India’s reluctance towards further military deals with Russia.

Recently Russia has involved itself into a series of tensions with its neighbour Ukraine. Its claim over the black sea peninsula ‘Crimea’ was highly condemned by many countries across the globe. It faced different sanctions from the west and seemingly got isolated with EU and US. Rouble is declining continuously. Investors prefer alternate markets rather than that of Russia.

Amid all the growing military needs, US is believed to be the source of cutting-edge technology. Today, western countries are willing to provide us what Russia fails most of the time – high precision and sophisticated weaponry at reasonable prices.

Recently, Russia’s impression was hurt globally due to the delay and high cost in transforming the modified Kiev-class aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov into the INS-Vikramaditya which was inducted in Indian Navy last year. This impression was further hurt due to series of crashes which involved Russia-built MiG-21 and MiG-29 fighter planes. Mishaps like this have made India to think about upgrading its Soviet-era military weaponry.

Under the leadership of India’s new Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government is taking its own key pet project “Make in India” very seriously and hence it is paying attention towards joint development and manufacturing on which Russia never agreed until recently. Meanwhile, western countries have shown their keen interest for the same. It has forced the government to think beyond Russia.

The ties were further affected when Russia offered to sell MI-35 attack helicopters to its biggest enemy Pakistan.

Due the factors contributed by the above mentioned reasons US is seemed to be given the front seat when it comes to military ties. This was proved when US replaced Russia in the list of India’s top defence suppliers, earlier this year. The defence ministry of India, is believed to acquire Boeing’s Apache attack helicopters, Chinook military transfer helicopters, the mighty M-777 ultra light howitzers and the precise Javelin anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs).

It is good that India has discovered potential suppliers of military weaponry but it should also not forget Russia’s importance.