Text/Royal Wind
According to Russia's "TASS News Agency" reported on December 7, on the 6th local time, Russian President Putin conducted a one-day short-term visit to India, during which Putin and Modi held 3.5 hours of secret talks, and the two sides discussed a series of key issues, especially in the field of military cooperation. After the meeting between the two, Russia and India announced a blockbuster agreement, Russian Defense Minister Shoigu and Indian Defense Minister Singh signed the "2021-2031 Military Technical Cooperation Program", Putin said that Russia is willing to help India develop military strength, and believes that India is a friendly big country.
At the same time, India announced a series of heavy arms purchase projects, the highlight of which is the purchase of 600,000 AK-203 assault rifles, as well as the accelerated delivery of S-400 air defense systems, it is reported that India bought 5 battalions of S-400s from Russia at a high price of 5.4 billion US dollars, including hundreds of air defense interceptors, on the eve of Putin's visit to India, russia confirmed that it has delivered the first batch of S-400 air defense systems to India. It is worth noting that although the United States tried to block the India-Russia S-400 procurement project, but ultimately faced failure, Russian military industry sources confirmed that the delivery of S-400 to India is being carried out in an orderly manner.
According to reports, the most important agreement signed by the two countries during Putin's visit to India is the "2021-2031 Military Technical Cooperation Program", which the Indian side has rated it highly, believing that this has laid the direction of India-Russia military cooperation in the next 10 years and strongly supported India's military expansion action. Prior to this, India and Russia had signed a military cooperation agreement from 2011 to 2020, and the new agreement signed this time will once again expand the connotation of military cooperation between the two countries.
According to Russian media, the two countries promised to further strengthen military cooperation, including promoting the joint research and development and production of weapons, equipment and spare parts, strengthening the after-sales service system, focusing on strengthening cooperation in the fields of advanced and emerging military technologies, and strengthening joint military exercises between the armed forces of India and Russia. Russia said it was willing to support India in achieving its "self-sufficient" defense goals and agreed to share cutting-edge military technology with New Delhi.
Military experts pointed out that although the Russian side looks very generous, the Indian side is also cheering, but in fact, the military cooperation between India and Russia, whether it can be as New Delhi wishes, there is still a big question mark, for a long time, Russia is India's number one arms supplier, relying on the export of weapons every year, earning a lot of valuable foreign exchange from India, if India is really "independent" and can produce the required advanced weapons, then Russia's arms sales will certainly lose hugely, from this point of view, Moscow will certainly not sincerely help India develop its military strength, the so-called "all-out help India to expand the army" is just a scene, if India really believes, it will be too naïve.