Russia needs to be more competitive in arms market

By Vestnik Kavkaza
Su-30MKI fighter

These days mark the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Moscow and New Delhi. Russia and India have maintained close contacts since Soviet times, especially in the field of military-technical cooperation. India has long been the second largest market for the Russian defense industry. Bloomberg recently reported that India has begun talks with Russia to upgrade the army’s nearly 1,000 T-90 tanks, although the deputy director of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, Vladimir Drozhzhov, said that he had no information regarding the negotiations on this topic.

Meanwhile, recently experts began to express concern about the potential convergence of India and the United States, but a member of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), member of the IMEMO RAS Directorate, Russia's former ambassador to India (2004-2009), Vyacheslav Trubnikov, does not see such a development of events as a matter of concern: "The development of India's relations with the US does not seem unusual to me. This is not only a matter of the fact that the largest democracy, as we call India, wants to have more constructive relations with another democracy - the US... Today's arms and military equipment market in most countries of the world is a buyer's market, not a seller's one. They need to be competitive in this market. India will choose our rival in the sphere where Russia is not 100% able to cope with the task that confronts the Indian military industry, the Indian armed forces. So we just need to be more competitive. "

   

Trubnikov is convinced that in the short term India will need cooperation with Russia in some branches of military-technical cooperation: "I do not see anything alarming for Russia here. We will move forward, we will develop our relations with India in those directions that are mutually beneficial for us. The buyer in this case determines its interest, based on the ratio of price and quality. The Indian armed forces have sufficient means to acquire modern weapons. But after all, India works not only on the principle of acquisition, but on the principle of joint creation. Today's Su-30MKI fighters are a product that will compete with any western fighter model, even with the fourth-generation multirole fighter Rafale ... It's a competitive sphere, and tactically today interests can be in favor of the US, but tomorrow in favor of Russia, it's no big deal".

© Photo :Su-30MKI fighter
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