Why Military Relationship With Russia Still Matters For India

After the Galwan confrontation between India and China two trends have become apparent in Indian defence policy: there has been a perceptible shift towards the United States and its allies in New Delhi’s security relationships; and the country, as it usually does when it is faced by a crisis, is beginning to think proactively and creatively about weapons production and acquisition.

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The danger for New Delhi lies, however, in conflating the two trends into one where the country relies principally on the United States, and its proxy weapons supplier Israel, for fulfilling its defence acquisition needs. Here, Russia, India’s principal source of defence items for many years, comes in and its importance cannot be underestimated.

The India-Russia military relationship

The India-Russia military relationship began with the Indian decision in the early 1960s to purchase what was then the advanced MiG-21 fighter from the Soviet Union. The Indian government took the decision to buy and license-produce the MiG and the last of the planes was to roll off HAL’s assembly lines in 1984. At that point of time the MiG-21 gave India an edge over both Pakistan and China although eventually, the Pakistanis would acquire the Chinese version of the MiG- 21 and China’s aviation industry would go on to make fourth and possibly fifth generation fighter aircraft.

What initially began with aircraft, led to India buying all types of weaponry from the Soviet Union and later Russia. These included tanks, ships, submarines, helicopters, artillery, anti-aircraft systems and eventually an aircraft carrier. At a time when there was no significant qualitative difference between Soviet and Western technologies, India was to get large numbers of relatively modern weapons from the Soviet Union.