Moscow's arms sales to New Delhi to continue<\/p>\n
By Sergei Strokan<\/p>\n
MOSCOW: India is and will remain Moscow's principal strategic
\npartner in the Asia-Pacific region -- and its principal business
\npartner in the regional arms trade.<\/p>\n
In Moscow for meetings with Russian president Boris Yeltsin
\nand his premier Viktor Chernomyrdin, Tuesday, Indian prime
\nminister HD Deve Gowda underlined the mutual advantages to be
\nfound in deals that made New Delhi the world's biggest buyer of
\nRussian weaponry.<\/p>\n
Russia's arms industry, perhaps the only one of the country's
\ntrades to start the process of free market reform with both
\nquality product and hard-sell mentality, has moved on up to take
\nsecond place only to the United States in the global weapons
\nsales market.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, India is on an arms buying spree; it plans to
\nhike defense spending by 21 percent to US$10.2 billion between
\nApril 1997-March 1998, despite howls of protest from the
\ncountry's cash-strapped treasury.<\/p>\n
Since Russia, which still sells armaments to 51 different
\ncountries, made or designed most of India's tanks and artillery
\nin the former Soviet Union, it is the obvious source for new
\nhardware.<\/p>\n
India is paying $1.8 billion for 40 multi-purpose Sukhoi Su-30
\nMK jet fighters, with the first eight delivered this month. It
\nhas also agreed to buy submarines worth $800 million and is now
\nangling for a $1 billion Russian anti-missile system.<\/p>\n
New Delhi officials have said that a draft agreement would
\nsoon be made on the buying of six or seven air defense systems
\nwith a view to building more systems under license by India's
\nstruggling state-run ordnance factories.<\/p>\n
The Russian S-300 systems, each one deploying 48 missiles, are
\nsupposed to be an improved version of the U.S. made Patriot
\nmissile system deployed during the 1992 Gulf War to shoot down
\nIraq's incoming Russian-made Scud missiles.<\/p>\n
Russian experts say that unlike the Patriot, the S-300 will
\ndestroy the warhead as well as the missile and would be equally
\neffective against aircraft, cruise missiles and ballistic
\nmissiles.<\/p>\n
Its homing system, based on satellite communications, has
\nearned it the nickname 'The Third World's Star Wars' -- a
\nreference to the failed 1980s space defense program started by
\nformer U.S. president Ronald Reagan.<\/p>\n
India's existing Russian made SAM-3 missile systems are good
\nagainst jet planes only, and New Delhi has long sought a system
\nthat will give it an edge over its missile armed regional rival,
\nPakistan, as well as some insurance against China and its long-
\nrange Silkworm cruise missiles.<\/p>\n
Threats from Pakistan drive the race. Talks are also on to
\nupgrade the SAM-3s and its existing batteries of Russian-made
\nPrechora missiles in the wake of Pakistan's reported plans to buy
\nChinese M-11 tactical missiles. India says it bought the Su-30
\nMKs specifically to counter the 'threat' from Pakistan's
\nsquadrons of U.S. made F-16s and French Mirage 2000s.<\/p>\n
Another six Su-30 MKs are expected to be delivered by April 7,
\nand all will be operational by the year 2000, according to the
\nRussian news agency Interfax. It reports that Russia's Zhukovsky
\nair academy and the Sukhoi design bureau have already trained 15
\nIndian pilots and 40 engineers to run the Su-30s.<\/p>\n
India has fought three wars with Pakistan since the sub-
\ncontinent's independence from British rule in 1947 and one short
\nbut bitter border war with China in 1962. (Chinese foreign
\nminister Qian Qichen also met Yeltsin in Moscow last Thursday.)<\/p>\n
Accordingly Gowda's visit to Moscow was always expected to
\ntouch upon the issue of arms sales to Pakistan by Russia and
\nother former Soviet CIS countries. Russia itself sold 12 Mi-17
\nattack helicopters to Pakistan a few years ago and several T-85
\nRussian tanks have also reportedly ended up in Islamabad's care,
\nallegedly via China.<\/p>\n
But essentially this means Ukraine, which inherited nearly a
\nthird of the old Soviet Union's armaments plants when the old
\nbloc broke up. A four-year Kiev-Islamabad deal worth almost $650
\nmillion to ship the latest version of the T-80 main battle tank,
\nthe T-80 UD, to the Pakistan army has upset both India and
\nRussia.<\/p>\n
Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Davydov has even refused Ukraine a
\nlicense to export key parts for the tank's weapons' system still
\nmade in Russia. He commented tartly that \"Russia is not going to
\nassist the building up of Pakistan's military potential to the
\ndetriment of India, Russia's strategic partner\".<\/p>\n
\"Within the framework of its new, ever more aggressive
\nmarketing policy (Russia's main arms manufacturer) Rosvooruzhenie
\nwill try to do everything to chase away the weaker competitors,
\nthose who sell arms to anyone without considering the political
\nimplications,\" said the Moscow daily Segodnya.<\/p>\n
The daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta speculated grimly that the T-80
\nUDs could one day find their way into the hands of the Afghan
\nwarlords and from there to Tajikistan, \"the latest hotbed of
\nguerrilla warfare on Russia's borders\".<\/p>\n
\"Most likely, he (Davydov) had in mind not a direct threat to
\nthe southern borders of Russia,\" said Dmitry Mosyakov, a South
\nAsia expert with the Russian Academy of Sciences' Oriental Studies
\nInstitute, \"but the intention to prevent the buttressing of
\nPakistan's military potential.<\/p>\n
\"Pakistan is both a longstanding foe of India and the
\nprincipal strategic partner of Russia since Soviet times.\"<\/p>\n
\"It is no wonder Ukraine is desperate to see the Pakistani
\ndeal through, for the issue is the race between former Soviet
\nrepublics for the lucrative weapons' market in the developing
\nworld,\" Gleri Shirokov, the Institute's deputy director told IPS.
\n\"The trade is worth billions of dollars, which the battered
\neconomies of both Ukraine and Russia desperately
\nneed.\"<\/p>\n
-- IPS<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/moscows-arms-sales-to-new-delhi-to-continue-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }