TSAMTO, April 12. The United States is actively negotiating the modernization of Indian weapons. This, as RIA Novosti reports, was stated by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
"As for future systems, we are actively negotiating with India on how best to meet their modernization needs. Looking to the future, we want to make sure that we retain the ability to work together, and therefore we look forward to continuing these discussions, including a number of options that will make our systems more accessible," L. Austin said at a press conference following the US–Indian negotiations in the 2+2 format.
TSAMTO's comment
The United States continues its efforts to promote its weapons to the Indian arms market, seeking to do everything possible to reorient New Delhi to purchase American weapons.
In this regard, the American side should bear in mind that quite recently, on December 6, 2021, Russia and India signed an agreement between the governments of the two countries on long-term military-technical cooperation for the period up to 2030 (2021-2030).
The agreement implies cooperation between the types and branches of the armed forces, and also addresses issues of the supply and development of weapons and military equipment.
According to Russian Defense Minister General of the Army Sergei Shoigu, India is one of Russia's key partners in the defense sector, and bilateral relations are of a particularly privileged strategic nature. According to him, the intensity of military-technical cooperation, which is reaching a new qualitative level every year, indicates an unprecedented level of trust between the two countries.
Cooperation between Moscow and New Delhi in the defense sphere began in the mid-1950s. Since then, the USSR and then Russia have been the main suppliers of VIVT to India. In fact, the USSR and Russia played a decisive role in the formation and development of the national defense industry of India. The experience of the USSR and then Russia over the 65-year period of cooperation with India has passed the test of time.
Russia is a reliable partner for India, traditionally offering not only exclusive samples of weapons and military equipment, but also know-how: joint projects in the field of military-technical cooperation confirm the high level of existing technological and industrial cooperation, and the current stage of development of cooperation between the two countries is characterized by a significant increase in the share of joint R&D. Such close cooperation is an essential component of the Russian-Indian strategic partnership, reflecting the extremely high level of real trust between the two states and peoples.
In general, it can be stated that Russia is moving to a completely new stage of military-technical cooperation with India – from simple sales and even simple licensed production to joint creation of a new product.
Of course, in the new conditions, Russia's main trump card will be shifting the focus to joint development, production and sale of high-tech weapons to third countries, which can put the bilateral Russian-Indian military-technical cooperation on a higher level compared to competitors.
India is the only country with which Russia has already implemented two long-term military-technical cooperation programs.
The first long-term MTC program for the period 2001-2010 provided for the supply of military equipment for all types of the Indian armed forces, the transfer of licenses and assistance in the production of certain types of military products at Indian enterprises, modernization of Russian military equipment previously supplied to India. This program totaling about $18 billion has been implemented in almost all positions.
The second long-term program included the period 2011-2020. The corresponding intergovernmental agreement was signed in December 2009.
Russia has a strong position in several sectors in the Indian arms market. First of all, this applies to fighter aircraft (heavy fighters), medium multi-purpose transport helicopters, main battle tanks, main class warships and a number of other segments.
The Indian arms market is extremely important for Russia. India is currently the largest importer of Russian weapons. The same situation is predicted for the foreseeable future.
At the moment, the United States has taken the second position in India's arms exports, which in recent years has taken all possible measures to gain a foothold in the arms market of this country. At the end of January 2011, the United States decided to exclude several Indian state defense companies, including four divisions of the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) of the Ministry of Defense of India and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) from the so-called "List of Legal Entities" (Entity List), which were prohibited from selling high-tech and dual-use technologies.
The exclusion from the list meant the end of the 13-year US embargo on exports to India's defense and aerospace structures of products created using high technologies and dual-use technologies, which was imposed after the Indian side began nuclear tests in 1998.
The decision to lift restrictions on the export of high technologies to India was announced by then US President Barack Obama during his visit to India in November 2010, it came into force on January 24, 2011.
In connection with the expansion of the military-technical cooperation of the United States and India, it should be recalled that the United States actively uses the practice of unilaterally imposing an arms embargo on certain countries under various pretexts if the policy of a particular country at a certain stage of time does not meet the "criteria" of the United States. Moreover, the embargo is often imposed against those countries to which the United States previously supplied a large number of weapons. This leads to the emergence of big problems in ensuring the proper defense capability of countries subjected to such an embargo (a vivid example is Iran and Venezuela), primarily due to a decrease in combat readiness due to the termination of the supply of spare parts, maintenance and repair of previously delivered equipment. That is, all previously delivered equipment turns into "unnecessary hardware". Such a situation can arise in any country that, for whatever reason, will be recognized by the US administration as "unreliable" for one reason or another.
In such a delicate area as military-technical cooperation, it should also be borne in mind that the customer cannot control the most complex modern weapons systems with a 100% guarantee for the absence of technical "bookmarks", which at a crucial moment can disable this or that equipment that is of key importance for the country's defense capability.
In general, it can be stated that the Indian arms market, one of the largest in the world, has developed a very tough competition between the world's leading arms suppliers.
