Message to the US and Russia

The HAL-UAC civilian aircraft deal is rich in optics, and good for Indian manufacturing

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India’s move to work with a Russian state-run aviation major facing extensive Western sanctions to build a civilian commuter aircraft came almost a decade after Moscow first offered the complete production of the regional jet to New Delhi. The fact that an agreement was finally signed on the SJ-100 jet by India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) with Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) ahead of President Vladimir Putin's visit for an annual summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi is being seen as both a part of India’s balancing act and a message to the US and to Russia.