Russia puts onus on India to decide on defence deals during Putin’s visit

The onus is now on India to decide the kind of weapons it wants and how to go ahead with the military deals signed in 2015, said Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov. Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia is slated to visit India next week.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi penned down a deal worth Rs 39,000 crore with Putin to buy S-400 the most advanced air defence system in Moscow.

“As for the other deals which are being negotiated, I haven’t heard anything about the timing, postponement, about putting anything on hold, and I understand that India will take sovereign decision on how to proceed and what kind of weapons India needs,” Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister said in an interaction with NDTV, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

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Some 300 targets can be tracked down by the S-400 missile system and simultaneously it also can shoot down three dozen targets over a range of 400 kilometres. It can also detect even stealth aircraft through its sensitive radars.

Lavrov denied the fact that he knew anything about the controversy the Rafale warplane deal has stirred in the country after India signed the deal with Dassault Aviation of France.

Putin’s visit to India will be for the annual India-Russia summit and it will be a two-day affair on October 4 and 5 which would primarily focus on strengthening bilateral ties with India.

“We participated in the bid for that delivery (India’s proposal to buy warplanes) and we didn’t get it. I haven’t heard about this since,” Lavrov, as quoted by NDTV, said, when questioned as to whether Russia would now be more careful with following the rules while signing defence deals with India, especially after the controversy of the Rafale deal.