India and Russia will review the progress of various Defence projects including fifth generation fighter aircraft (FGFA), warship construction and likely acquisition of S-400 air defence system during Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar’s forthcoming visit to Moscow this month-end. He will also lay the ground work for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s summit meeting
with President Vladimir
Putin in late November where Defence and strategic ties will figure prominently.
New Delhi and Moscow had agreed to jointly design and develop fifth generation aircraft more than ten years ago. However, the project has not made the expected progress due to various issues including sharing cost of design thereby leading to delays. India plans to procure nearly 300 aircraft. Parrikar and Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu will take stock of the present position and expedite the finalisation of contract for this prestigious project. The final price tag may cross $20 billion mark.
Incidentally, the Russian Defence Minister had come to India in January this year to participate in the 14th meeting of Inter-Governmental Commission on Military and Technical Co-operation. This body is co-chaired by the Defence Ministers of two countries to lend weight to long standing Defence relations between the two countries. The Ministers will review ongoing Defence projects besides enhancing the scope of bilateral ties through joint exercises between the armed forces.
Apart from this project, the two Ministers will also explore possibilities of joint production of military helicopters, officials said here on Saturday. The Russian Defence industry has shown keen interest in tying up with Indian private and public sector units for manufacturing weapon systems under the ‘Make in India’ policy. In fact, several private players have already visited Russia in the past few months for possible partnerships in projects ranging from warships, helicopters and electronic warfare equipment, they said.
With the Defence Acquisition Council(DAC) likely to give the nod next week to the IAF for procuring Russian made S-400 air defence system to track down and hit hostile aircraft and missile, the two Ministers may take up this project too during their talks, sources said. S-400 is the latest long range air defence system which can detect and hit a target at more than 400 km and India is keen to shore up its air security.
Russia may have slipped from the top position as the biggest weapon supplier to India with the US assuming that spot in recent years, the Indian armed forces still have more than 70 per cent inventory of Russian origin. Moreover, India considers Russia its strongest ally as their strategic and Defence ties have withstood the test of time for more than 40 years and the two Ministers will chalk out a framework to further strengthen these relations.