Russia and US jostle for arms sales to India after tensions with China over border

India is a top buyer of foreign weapons on the international market and Russia has been its main supplier since the Soviet era

The June 15 clash between China and India in the contested Galwan Valley lends an urgency to New Delhi’s arms programme

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Indian Army T-90 (Bhishma) tanks feature in the Republic Day parade in New Delhi, India, on January 26, 2019. India is a lucrative market for arms vendors such as the US and Russia. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 8:00am, 11 Jul 2020Updated: 10:22pm, 11 Jul 2020

Russia and the United States are racing to sell weapons to India as New Delhi seeks to boost arms supplies for its ongoing military tension with Beijing.

The Indian government last week rushed to approve a proposal to acquire 33 new Russian warplanes for US$2.4 billion and upgrade 59 more, in addition to an earlier US$5.43 billion deal for S-400 air defence missile systems, after the deadly skirmish with Chinese troops last month on their disputed border.

However, Russia’s close relationship with China raised questions over Moscow’s reliability by some in India, while the US, which has been stepping up ties with New Delhi through the Indo-Pacific strategy, has been pushing for arms sale to India.

“Many believe that India must not put all its eggs in one basket, rather continue to follow the middle path by pushing for engagement with both Russia as well as the United States,” said Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, a distinguished fellow and head of the Nuclear and Space Policy Initiative at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.

India signed a US$5.43 billion deal for an S-400 air defence missile system. Photo: EPA

India is a top buyer in the international arms market, with billions of dollars of imports every year. In the past 10 years, it has spent more money on foreign weapons than any other country in the world, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.