Ashish Ranjan
Russia still India’s major weapons supplier: The difficulty for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in recalibrating New Delhi’s reliance on Moscow while its borders with China and Pakistan remain tense is highlighted by the fact that Russia remains India’s major weapons supplier despite the country’s drastic reduction in purchases.
According to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, an independent think tank that studies conflict, weapon sales, and disarmament, Russian weapon imports decreased by 19% for the five-year period beginning in 2018 compared to the preceding period.
Russia was the largest supplier of arms to India from 2013 to 2017 and from 2018 to 2022, but its proportion of total Indian arms imports decreased from 64% to 45%, according to the most recent report published on Monday.
One of the reasons for New Delhi’s neutral posture on Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, despite pressure from the United States, Japan, and Australia, is India’s reliance on Russia for arms. The South Asian nation has supported calls for a ceasefire and a diplomatic solution to end Russia’s conflict, but it has abstained from votes condemning Russia’s invasion at the United Nations. Additionally, it has continued to purchase inexpensive Russian oil.
Since 1993, India has been the largest importer of arms in the world, and “tensions with Pakistan and China primarily drive its demand for arms imports,” according to a report.The SIPRI report added that the decrease in purchases from Russia was a result of sanctions on Russia affecting arms exports, increased defence equipment manufacturing in India, and increased competition from countries such as France, whose arms exports to New Delhi increased by an astounding 489% over the same period.
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Paris has surpassed the United States as India’s second-largest arms supplier between 2018 and 2022.
