India bought $13 bn Russian arms in 5 years

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New Delhi, February 13

Despite the unprecedented pressure on India from western countries following Russia’s special operation in Ukraine, it continues to be one of Russia’s main partners in the field of military-technical cooperation with supplies of about $13 billion (Rs 1 lakh crore) of military hardware over the past five years.

In addition, India has placed orders with Russia for weapons and military equipment exceeding $10 billion, said Russian news agencies Interfax and TASS quoting Dmitry Shugayev, the head of Russia’s Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation.

India is the world’s biggest buyer of Russian arms, accounting for around 20 per cent of Rosoboronexport’s current order book. Rosoboronexport’s annual arms exports are at $15 billion, and the order book has remained steady at around $50 billion, reported Interfax.

Shugayev, who inked an intergovernmental agreement on behalf of Moscow with India on military-technical cooperation till 2030, said there was great interest among Asian customers for S-400 Triumf missile defence systems, short-range surface-to-air missiles systems such as Osa, Pechora or Strela, as well as Su-30 and MiG-29 warplanes, helicopters and drones.