India to buy battle tanks from Russia, extends deal
India to buy battle tanks from Russia, extends dealBappa Majumdar
Reuters North American News ServiceSep 29, 2008 07:06 EST
NEW DELHI, Sept 29 (Reuters) – India will buy 347 T-90 battle tanks from Russia and build 1,000 more locally with Russian help, the defence minister said on Monday, as the two nations decided to iron out differences that had delayed several arms deals.
India, one of the world’s biggest arms buyers and Russia, a long time supplier, also agreed to speed up delivery of an aircraft carrier that has been slated for delivery in 2012, a defence official said.
The announcement came after a meeting between Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and India’s Defence Minister A.K. Antony, who said the two countries had also decided to extend a defence cooperation deal by another 10 years.
India is moving closer to the West in a challenge to traditional ally and supplier Russia. European and U.S. firms are bidding for India’s $10 billion deal to buy 126 fighter jets, one of the biggest arms contracts in the world.
In 2004, India and Russia had signed a $1.6 billion deal to bring the Admiral Gorshkov to India by 2008. India may now have to pay an extra $1.2 billion for the carrier’s refitting costs.
“The Indian side has considered the Russian demand for an escalation in price….the same has been considered and would be placed before the cabinet for consideration,” Antony said in a statement on Monday.
India plans to spend $30 billion over the next four years to modernise its largely Soviet-era arms.
The two countries agreed to speed up pending projects, including delivery of Sukhoi-30MKI fighters, battle tanks, stealth frigates and missile destroyers, officials said.
While analysts say Russia was delaying some arms deliveries because it was uneasy about India’s growing ties with the United States and France to buy more weapons, India says Russia was still their tried and tested friend.
“A major part of our defence inventory is of Russian origin, and continues to remain so even now,” Antony said.
The defence deal between the two countries is over $35 billion since they started a partnership in the 1960s, officials said. (Editing by Alistair Scrutton and Sanjeev Miglani)
I am not an expert on Indo-US relations but I have believed that the US has been attempting to bring Indian into an Indo-US alliance against both Pakistan and China. The US has been trying to find a counter weight to Chinese influence and who better than another country with a population of a billion plus. An alliance with India will also allow the US to continue its covert-ish war against Pakistan.I’m looking for analysis on this deal but I’ve found nothing. I am interested to know why India would purchase Russian tanks.
Are these tanks better than American tanks?
Is the purchase of these tanks an indication that India is unhappy with America’s policies in their region?
Is the possible that the probably Indo-US alliance is on hold?
I’m asking the latter because I have long suspected that the US will align itself with India and Israel in a war against Pakistan and Iraq. There of course would be other smaller powers involved with the United States but I’ve suspected that the US would need these two powers in order to become a true global hegemon while the other two would become regional hegemons.
I’m not sure if it’ll happen but its what I wrote about while I was in college. So far my predictions are not totally off. I’ll try to find the paper and post the highlights.
