India-Russia Defence Cooperation: Current Developments
Russia has recently made a significant push to expand its defence cooperation with India, offering advanced military hardware such as the Su-57 fifth-generation stealth fighter, long-range drones, and submarines. However, India's response to these offers has been lukewarm.
Key Developments
- Despite expectations, no major defence collaborations were announced during President Vladimir Putin's recent visit to India.
- A total of 19 agreements were signed to boost bilateral trade, but no progress was made regarding the Su-57 or the Russia’s S-500 air defence system.
- India's restrained response aligns with its focus on increasing self-reliance in defence manufacturing.
India's Defence Manufacturing Shift
- Defence Minister highlighted a significant transformation in India's domestic defence capabilities.
- India's defence production value reached ₹1.51 lakh crore, a substantial increase from ₹46,000 crore in 2014.
- Defence exports surged to nearly ₹24,000 crore from under ₹1,000 crore over the past decade.
Russia's Geran Drones
- The Geran drones, an indigenized version of Iran's Shahed-136 kamikaze drone, have been used by Russia in Ukraine but have not attracted interest from India.
India-Russia Technical Cooperation
- The 23rd meeting of the India–Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Military Technical Cooperation took place in Moscow.
- Co-chaired by Sanjeev Kumar and Andrey A. Boytsov, the discussions focused on tri-service cooperation and defence R&D.
- The meeting concluded with a Protocol highlighting new collaboration areas, despite the absence of major defence deals .
