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| Issues beyond the defence dimension |
| BS Reporter / New Delhi Mar 11, 2010, 01:05 IST |
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Ahead of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s visit to India, Russian Ambassador in India A M Kadakin and an Indian diplomat with a long stint in Russia, Rajiv Sikri, took the gloves off.
“Please remember,” said Kadakin, “India wants a good price (for defence equipment). But, please remember, the era of doing business in defence equipment against tea, rise and hosiery from Ludhiana is over”.
Kadakin reminded a rapt audience at a seminar organised by Russian telecom provider MTS and the Delhi-based Centre for Policy Alternatives that when the whole world had turned its back on India, it was Russia which helped set up India’s first anti-biotic medicine plant (in Haridwar), giant steel and machinery plants in Bhilai, Rourkela, Visakhapatnam and elsewhere, and laid the seeds of India’s future development as a knowledge technology giant by setting up a modest Indo-Russian computer facility in Bangalore.
In the context of Putin’s visit, Kadakin said the world had changed and friendships were now marked by pragmatism. But, it was enlightened self-interest on the part of both countries that should lead them to push ties to new heights.
Both Sikri and Kadakin acknowledged that Indo-Russian ties touched their lowest ebb in the 1990s when Boris Yeltsin was the president. Both nations were dealing with their own problems and found little time to address each other’s. But Sikri said it was not for want of the Indian elite’s efforts that ties were yet to reach their full potential. The new Russian elite’s perceptions were shaped by the West where “windfall profits made in the 1990s reforms in Russia were invested”.
Kadakin specifically referred to the Brahmos, the joint Indo-Russian version of the Cruise missile that Indian defence officers present said privately was not known to be a success story, to illustrate the depth of the India-Russia defence relationship. He acknowledged that the Gorshkov — a retrofitted Russian aircraft carrier that has been criticised by the Comptroller General of India as being 60 per cent costlier than originally budgeted for — was expensive.
During Putin’s visit, which is likely to mark a turning point in India- Russia relations, the two sides are also likely to sign the final agreement for joint manufacture of fifth-generation fighters.
The Gorshkov carrier, which has been rechristened INS Vikramaditya is now scheduled to be delivered by 2013. India would pay another $1.2 billion for the new naval MiG-29K/KUB.
The new MiGs will be in addition to 16 jets already to be delivered under a contract signed in 2004 as part of the Gorshkov deal.
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