Senior Indian officials are closely monitoring Russian attempts to sell an unspecified number of Mi-35s to Pakistan: a move that would tear up a decades-old informal understanding between Delhi and Moscow against supplying Islamabad any materiel.
"By offering to sell military equipment to Pakistan, the Russians are, in all probability, trying to arm-twist India from sourcing its defence requirements from alternate suppliers," former Indian Navy chief Admiral Arun Prakash told IHS Jane's . "Such tactics should not intimidate India's new administration."
Pakistan's national security and foreign affairs adviser Sartaj Aziz travelled to Moscow to thank Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for the helicopters on 21 June, just two days after Indian leaders raised concerns in New Delhi with visiting Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin.
Aziz also "expressed the hope that Pakistan's further request for defence equipment would also be considered soon as part of our continued defence collaboration", a 20 June Pakistan Foreign Office statement said.
It remains unclear how many Mi-35s Russia has agreed to supply and the status of negotiations.
The Pakistan Army's existing attack helicopter fleet is made up of a mix of AH-1F/S Cobras supplied by the United States. These are used to provide surveillance, attack, and close air support to ground forces engaging militants in the Tribal Areas and surrounds.
Official sources in Delhi said Rogozin had provided "ambiguous" assurances to Indian foreign minister Sushma Swaraj that Indian and Russian military ties would not be jeopardised by the sale to Pakistan.
Rogozin was in Delhi to reaffirm Moscow's defence ties with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's newly installed BJP-led government.
His visit followed a 4 June statement by the Russian ambassador to India Alexander M Kadakin, who said Moscow would not do anything that would be "detrimental" to the deep strategic partnership between Delhi and Moscow.
Russia has been India's largest weapons supplier since the early 1960s, but since 2000 its monopoly has been gradually diluted by Israel, European states, and the United States.
Moscow still supplies 75.7% of India's defence equipment, followed by the US (6.8%) and Israel (5.2%). It also provides India technical assistance with some of its more classified strategic programmes, such as its nuclear-powered attack submarines.
Sumber : Janes
No comments:
Post a Comment