Why is India buying weapons from Russia (and making the US angry)?
India and Russia have signed agreements on the supply of the S-400 system and on the production of assault rifles. It is a blow to the United States, but to what extent? All the details
During a visit by Vladimir Putin to New Delhi, India and Russia announced on Monday the signing of a series of agreements on defense and beyond. What is being talked about most, because it would expose India to US sanctions, is the purchase of a $ 5.4 billion Russian missile defense system.
WHAT THE S-400 IS AND WHY IT IS USED FOR INDIA
This is the S-400, one of the most sophisticated ground-to-air defense systems in the world: it is capable of neutralizing multiple targets at a maximum distance of about 400 kilometers. The agreement with Russia on the supply of the device dates back to 2018 and has continued over the years despite the risks to the parallel relationship with the United States, which has grown a lot even though India is not formally an American ally.
The S-400 is useful for India to improve its defenses against China and Pakistan, perceived as concrete and direct threats beyond its borders. There are shared territorial claims between New Delhi and Beijing and last year much had been written about the clashes along the Himalayas, in the Ladakh region (where thousands of troops still remain).
THE ADVANTAGES OF THE S-400
For India, the Russian S-400, beyond the technical specifications, offers a double advantage: an economic and a political-strategic one. First, it's a cheaper option than the US-developed Patriot system, which costs roughly twice as much. And then because the diversification of military supplies allows India to reaffirm a historical principle of its foreign policy: non-alignment, the refusal to become part of a formal (and therefore exclusive) system of alliances.
The agreement on the S-400 with Russia is therefore not a rejection of the partnership with the United States – which exists and continues, although it could have become complicated – but a way for India to reaffirm its historic balancing posture.
THE CALCULATION OF INDIA
According to the New York Times , India has decided to continue with the agreement on the Russian S-400 because it feels confident that the United States will not penalize it for the purchase: after all, New Delhi is a crucial piece of the strategy. of Washington for Asia and the containment of China. Between America and India, beyond some inevitable differences, there is a close coordination on the management of the Chinese rise: New Delhi is also part of the Quad , the forum on security to which Australia and Japan are also part and that the Joe Biden's administration would like to turn into a formal agreement.
THE LOCATION OF THE UNITED STATES
In 2017, the United States passed a law, the CAATSA, which provides for the possibility of imposing sanctions on any country that comes into contact with the defense and intelligence sectors of Russia, Iran and North Korea. However, sanctioning India for the purchase of the S-400 – thus replicating the line held with Turkey – would damage bilateral relations and damage the general strategy for Asia-Pacific.
And in fact, at the end of October, two American senators – the Republican John Cornyn and the Democrat Mark Warner – had written a letter to President Biden asking him to renounce the sanctions against India in the name of "national security": they were referring precisely to coordination with New Delhi from an anti-Chinese perspective.
However, the United States considers the presence of the S-400 incompatible with the possible supply, to the Indian armed forces, of American fighters such as the F-15EX or the F-21: Washington does not want the system's radars to acquire sensitive information on the operation of the two aircraft.
THE AGREEMENTS BETWEEN INDIA AND RUSSIA
India and Russia have not only agreed on the purchase of the S-400. But also to bring the value of the annual commercial exchange to 30 billion dollars by 2030, tripling it; to "strengthen defense cooperation"; for the supply (from the Russian side) of oil and coal; for the production (on Indian soil, in Uttar Pradesh) of over 600 thousand Russian AK-203 rifles, with a contract worth 600 million.
SOME DATA
Beyond the deals announced on Monday, India is reducing purchases of military equipment from Russia, which has been its main supplier for many years.
Indeed, from 2016 to 2020, Russian arms exports to India fell by 53 percent compared to the previous five-year period. In contrast, sales of American equipment in India are growing: in fiscal 2020 they were worth $ 3.4 billion.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/india-russia-accordo-armi/ on Tue, 07 Dec 2021 09:00:14 +0000.