India is preparing to fight China with a Russian “silver bullet”
Russia will accelerate the implementation of a key defense contract with India, which provides for the supply of five S-400 air defense systems to Delhi, and will also intensify negotiations on the supply of 33 MiG-29 and Su-30MKI fighters to India, which is very dissatisfied in China.
This was reported by Kommersant, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
These agreements, the publication notes, were the main result of Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh’s visit to Moscow, and Delhi’s desire to quickly receive Russian fighters and air defense systems is caused by the growing need to neutralize threats from China and Pakistan, which are accelerating the modernization of their air forces.
“If this scenario is realized, then we will see the first installation of the S-400 at the military parade on the occasion of the Republic Day of India, which will be held on the main avenue of the Indian capital Rajpath on January 26 next year. This system will be our silver bullet against our enemies,” an Indian military source told the publication.
In addition, interlocutors in Delhi note that Pakistan acquired American F-16 Block 52 fighters, and China strengthened its air force with the fifth-generation J-20 fighter of its own design, after which the Indian Air Force found itself in a difficult situation, since it would have to use its fighters simultaneously for both defensive and offensive purposes.
“The imbalance will be corrected once the S-400 air defense systems take on the primary role of protecting Indian airspace, allowing them to look deep into Pakistani territory and track enemy aircraft as soon as they are in the air, as well as monitor Chinese fighters taking off from airfields. along the Tibetan plateau. Thus, the S-400 will free up our multi-role fighters to perform tasks such as striking ground targets, freeing them from the need to conduct air battles with enemy fighters,” the newspaper’s interlocutor said.
It is assumed that three of the Russian S-400 systems, after receiving them by India, will be deployed on the border with Pakistan and two on the Line of Control with China.
Officially, Beijing does not comment on information about the planned acceleration of the implementation of Russian defense contracts with India, but recently in the Russian-language account of the newspaper of the CPC Central Committee "People's Daily" in the community "Society of Orientalists of Russia" a comment appeared under the heading "India will test Russian-Chinese friendship?" where it was said that it is better not to supply these systems to India.
“It is obvious that Beijing is trying to influence Moscow’s decision to sell weapons to India. Previously, in private conversations, Chinese diplomats and experts expressed to their Russian colleagues dissatisfaction with Moscow’s military-technical cooperation with Beijing’s opponents, primarily with India and Vietnam. However, all these attempts can be perceived more like trial balloons, testing the extent to which the Russian side generally succumbs to pressure on this issue,” believes Alexander Gabuev, head of the Asia program at the Carnegie Moscow Center.
At the same time, he believes that the Russian leadership is unlikely to follow China’s lead.
“Although relations with China are the cornerstone of Russian foreign policy, Moscow clearly does not want to turn into China’s junior partner and sacrifice relations with other players. This is why relations with countries such as India or Vietnam are important, both for the narrow considerations of expanding the export portfolio, and for the broader strategic considerations of the need to balance relations with Beijing by developing trusting contacts with other centers of power, especially Delhi . Until now, Moscow has strictly followed this course, and it is unlikely that it will abandon it in the future,” the expert is convinced.
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