India and Russia have had a long-standing defense relationship since the 1960s. India has purchased most of its arms from Moscow, and there are various reasons for this. Prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s anti-colonial sentiments set the country on a path to autonomy and self-reliance, but defense minister Krishna Menon socialist leanings moved the country closer to the soviet union. India’s non-alignment strategy aimed to counterbalance its legacy, defense, and bureaucracy links with the British and the west by actively building defense ties with the soviet union. However, the u.
Pakistan alliance was far more crucial, while Nehru was wary of the u.s and did not want to be drawn into the cold war by supporting either the u.s or the soviet union. Us’s support for Pakistan pushed India’s hand, the united states collaborated with Pakistan first through the southeast Asia treaty organization.
Subsequently, the Baghdad pact in the 1950s naturally drove India to lean toward the soviet union to counterbalance Pakistan beginning in the 1950s. New Delhi and Moscow began To support each other internationally, with the soviets quickly adopting the Indian position on Kashmir and casting vetoes in the u.n security council to back them and calling for negotiations.
Rather than backing the Chinese over sino-Indian border disputes. The soviets were driven by a desire to keep India out of the western bloc and to restrain china’s growth. Moscow also sought to strengthen India’s internal economy by providing one billion dollars in long-term credit over a decade, including support for heavy industrial projects and pressuring the communist party of India to shift from militarized to peaceful opposition within India’s parliamentary democracy, which began in 1955. India. On the other hand, voted against a un general assembly resolution calling for soviet soldiers to withdraw from Hungary, implying that it supported the invasion of Czechoslovakia.
Furthermore, arms sales gave the partnership a new depth in the 1950s, as the sino-soviet relationship deteriorated and India became increasingly adept at controlling the internal communist challenge to national security. New Delhi turned to soviet military technology to counterbalance china and, more crucially, Pakistan. After beginning defense cooperation with the soviet union with engine purchases, India signed one of the first major arms agreements with the soviet union in 1962, when it purchased its first supersonic jet fighter, the mig-21, which paved the way for large-scale defense cooperation production and, arguably dependence. Many experts in India and around the world, particularly in the united states, believe that the Indian military cannot function effectively without Russian-supplied weapon systems.
A recent report by the: US congressional research service CRS stated that India will continue to rely on its weapon systems in the near future and that new Delhi is moving full steam ahead with the induction of the s 400, with the first deliveries scheduled for autumn 2021 and completion in early 2023.
So why is it that the Indian military cannot function efficiently without Russian-supplied equipment while India has expanded its supply base to include Israel, the united states, and France? Russia remains a significant supplier; Russia supplies 86 of India’s military equipment, weaponry, and platforms. The ins Vikramaditya, the navy’s only operating aircraft carrier, and chakra 2, the navy’s only nuclear attack submarine, are both Russian, and so are the armies, the main battle, tanks, t90 and t72, as well as the su-30mki fighter of the Indian air force Brahmos, the country’s only nuclear-capable supersonic Cruise missile is developed in partnership with Russia. India’s reliance on Russia for military weapons is due to various factors. India and Russia have a long-standing defense partnership, and their methods and systems are familiar.
Russia gives India specialized equipment that sets it apart from other countries, such as the s 400, air defense, missile systems, nuclear submarines, and aircraft carriers. Each of Russia’s systems has advantages and purposes, and they’ve all been put to good use in developing maximum combat capability, especially when it comes to India’s higher-end strike platforms, despite India’s rising mutual solidarity with the united states against china in the aftermath of recent border tensions. In Ladakh, its armed forces remain highly reliant on Russian-made equipment, weaponry, and military platforms, which comprise most of its inventory. The abiding arms relationship, which has persisted since the cold war and evolved from arms sales and technology transfer to the lease of a nuclear submarine and technical assistance on the development of an indigenous Indian ballistic missile submarine nuclear powered, is the true heart of India-Russia. Partnership, it’s possible that the complexity of this relationship wasn’t fully realized or, at the very least, was overlooked.
Between 1960 and 1990, the soviet union was reported to have provided India with 35 billion dollars in equipment, the majority of which was provided without immediate payment and was paid in Indian rupees at low-interest rates. Pien Hasker, a former deputy chairman of India’s planning commission, stated that the soviet Russian backing aided India’s dignity, sovereignty, and independence. Indo-Soviet defense cooperation began in the 1960s and has continued since evolving from a buy-seller relationship to a weapon system. Co-Development,
