India has ceased to consider the Russian Federation as a privileged partner. Pakistan will receive Russian weapons
Recently, the Chief of Staff of the Pakistani Army, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, said that his country had concluded a number of large arms contracts with Russia for the supply of air defense systems, small arms and anti-tank systems.
This news, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports, has caused discontent in India, which has tense relations with Pakistan. However, experts note that even earlier India gave priority to the purchase of weapons from Russia’s geopolitical opponents.
“Moscow has always closely monitored the observance of Indian interests. At least as long as Russia remained India's privileged partner in arms procurement. That is why, until 2014, Pakistan was completely absent from the list of states with which we have allowed military-technical cooperation,” recalls Konstantin Makienko, deputy director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, in an interview with Moskovsky Komsomolets.
According to him, since 2008, India has clearly taken a course towards expanding arms purchases from the United States.
“It is the United States, and not Russia, that has now become India’s privileged partner in military-technical cooperation. We are very fond of talking about some kind of Russian-Indian “strategic partnership”. This is self-deception. India’s strategic partner is the United States, and Russia is perceived in India as a weakening and decrepit power, the apogee of its influence in the world is in the distant past, and its relative power is steadily declining,” says the expert.
“Again, as long as India predominantly purchased weapons from Russia, this can and should be tolerated. Well, or at least be understanding. But if India now views Russia not as the first country where you buy weapons, but as one of many, then why should we limit ourselves? If Russia no longer has an exclusive position in the Indian market, then why should Moscow perceive India as a privileged partner?” the publication’s interlocutor is perplexed.
He emphasizes that in the arms market, where the Americans are imposing sanctions on Russia from all sides, it is no longer possible to be too accommodating.
“And so the US sanctions caused us considerable harm. We must fight for markets,” Makienko urges.
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