Closer Indo-Ukraine military ties miff Russia

bhramos

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Closer Indo-Ukraine military ties miff Russia


New Delhi, June 09: Russia, the country's longtime and largest defence partner, appears to be miffed over India working towards sewing up a defence pact with Ukraine.

A Defence Ministry official said here Tuesday that the issues were "raised" informally by the Russians with an Indian delegation led by Defence Secretary Vijay Singh during a recent visit to Moscow.

The official was asked about Moscow's reaction to India's efforts to firm up a defence pact with Ukraine, which is seen by Moscow as a rival to its thriving defence export business, particularly with India.

Moscow is also believed to be unhappy over reported comments of former IAF chief Fali Homi Major, just before his retirement, that India would prefer A330 multi-role tanker transport (MRTT) for mid-air refuelling of fighter aircraft, instead of the Russian Illushin-78 tankers, six of which are already in use with the IAF.

Though Major did clarify that the government was yet to take a decision, it failed to placate the ruffled sentiments of Russians, who indicated that much to the Indian delegation that was in Moscow last week to attend the high-level monitoring committee under an inter-governmental commission.

The Defence Ministry official said India had already exchanged a formal draft for the defence pact with Ukraine, which had shown interest in a "deeper military relationship."

The pro-NATO tilt of Ukraine, which was part of the erstwhile Soviet Union, in the recent times, has come at a time when Russia has started asserting itself and challenging the unipolarity of geopolitics, the official said.

At present, Ukraine is among the world's top ten arms exporters, gaining from the defence industry it inherited after the break-up of the Soviet Union two decades ago.

Apart from producing the Antanov series of transport aircraft, which are a large part of the IAF's inventory, Ukraine also retains the rights to service them.

It also has the capacity to build the Mi series of helicopters, apart from T-80 tanks.

With Kiev being the former Soviet Union's aircraft building base, Ukraine retained the capacities to build these mammoth war machines, forcing Russia to build the capability at Sevmash shipyard, meant for submarines, in north Russia.

India is also pursuing similar defence agreements with Spain and Sweden. In Europe, India already has such agreements with Russia, Britain, France, Italy and Germany.

The A330 MRTT issue too came up for an informal discussion with the Russian officials, who stated that they were "slightly upset" with the remarks emanating from India that the Il-78 platform was 'not up to the mark.'

Govt?s move to sew defence pact with Ukraine miffs Russia

Anyway wat are we going to buy from Ukraine???:sad:
 

bhramos

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About Ukraine:


Ukraine cannot or does not have the infrastructure or even company to develop combat jets (strikers, bombers, UCAV's, air superiority, etc). As for the Mil helicopter idea, do they even have the ability to develop Mi-28's? Because I doubt the market is in for the older Mi-24's when the newer and better is out. As for T-80's, well, Pakistan uses them and I doubt that India would want them, but maybe for training purposes to prepare their soldiers for the T-80 if they have to face them.

Russia on the other hand, has all these capabilities and more. They still use the naval facilities to develop submarines, Frigates, Destroyers, cruisers and such. Aircraft carriers will be developed soon enough too. Ukraine would not be able to steal Russia's spotlight when it comes to weapon manufacturing and worldwide sales.
 
J

JattDaDanda

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Lately we Indians have been harrased by Russians for defence exports. If Russians are too busy arming Iran then we Indians have no choice but to for there compitition
 

NikSha

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Russians are busy blackmailing India. Plus their hardware is always late and in the end we end up paying a lot more than agreed upon (just imagine how many deals go unreported in media).

It's best if India expands its military ties with more countries. Besides, in the end it's all about getting the right and best hardware for the job at the right price. It has nothing to do with being loyal to a country over another, it's about security of a nation, not personal interests. If Russia can stop whining and crying over every new deal India makes and stop overcharging and start delivering products at time, maybe India will come back to it for more business.
 
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Russians made the mistake of not letting us in on more joint collaborations, so they slowly lost the market to Israel, french and possibly USA.
 

johnee

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Russians are miffed?!? Good! So, they take notice that India is not short of options(and is not dependent on Russia alone) and will not hesitate to explore them. Of course, Russia can retain the business with India by providing us better bargain(for instance, for joint collaborations may do the trick) and not blackmailing.
 

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