The portfolio of India’s orders for Russian weapons and military equipment is around $14 billion, a top rank Russian official has said.
Vladimir Drozhzhov, deputy director of Russia’s Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSMTC), told reporters on Tuesday that there were promising Russia-India ventures to be explored.
“There are promising (Russia-India) joint venture projects.
“BrahMos has already proved to be very effective; a joint venture for the production of Ka-226 helicopters has been established.
“Jjust recently a joint venture for the production of Kalashnikov assault rifles has been created.
“It should be noted that currently there is a large portfolio of orders for the supply of Russian weapons and military equipment to India, it is about $14 billion,” Drozhzhov added.
Meanwhile, Russia is hoping to receive an advance payment for S-400 air defense systems from India by the end of 2019 so that the deliveries might begin in 2020 and be completed by 2025, Drozhzhov further told reporters.
“The (payment) scheme has been agreed, and I hope that the first payment will soon be transferred by the Indian side.
“I think that by the end of 2020 – the beginning of 2021 the first system should be delivered.
“After the first set, the systems will be delivered under a certain schedule over the next few years, that is, India should get all the systems between 2024 and 2025,’’ the deputy director explained.
In early October 2018, Moscow and New Delhi concluded a contract on the deliveries of Russia’s S-400 missile systems to India worth over $5 billion. The deal was signed during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s two-day visit to India.
The S-400 is an advanced mobile air defense missile system which can carry three different types of missiles capable of destroying a variety of aerial targets at a short-to-extremely-long range, from reconnaissance aircraft to ballistic missiles.
(Sputnik/NAN)