Russia, India in Talks for More S-400 Deliveries, Says Report

Russia says it is in talks to supply more S-400 missile systems to India. Re-christened as “Sudarshan Chakra” in India, the S-400 air defence system is capable of detecting and destroying missiles and drones.

India and Russia are in talks for increased deliveries of the S-400 surface-to-air missile systems, stated a report. The report comes just a day after India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in the Chinese city of Tianjin.

Moscow and New Delhi are negotiating increased deliveries of Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile systems to India, TASS news agency cited a senior Russian defence export official as saying late on Tuesday, according to a Reuters report.

"India already has our S-400 system," TASS quoted Dmitry Shugayev, head of Russia's Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, as saying. "There is potential to expand our cooperation in this area as well. That means new deliveries. For now, we are in the negotiation stage."

A Look At India-Russia S-400 Deal

India signed a USD 5.43 billion deal with Russia in 2018 for five squadrons of the S-400 Triumf missile system, a state-of-the-art air defence platform capable of engaging multiple aerial threats at long ranges. Three squadrons have already been delivered.

Re-christened as “Sudarshan Chakra” in India, the S-400 air defence system is capable of detecting and destroying missiles and drones. Amid recent tensions between India and Pakistan, the S-400 system successfully neutralised drones fired by Pakistan in retaliation to Operation Sindoor.

There have been delays in the delivery several times, the Reuters report stated, adding that Moscow is expected to deliver units of the final two S-400 systems to India in 2026 and 2027.

Moscow' Deputy Chief of Mission in India, Roman Babushkin, said last month that India will get its remaining units of the S-400 air defence system from Russia by 2025-2026. Babushkin had confirmed that the contract for the remaining two S-400 units is on track, with deliveries expected to be completed by 2025-26, in line with publicly announced timelines.

"We heard that S-400 performed very efficiently during the situation between India and Pakistan. We have a long history of collaboration...As far as my knowledge, the contract for the remaining S-400 units will be according to the schedule... I think it will be done in 2025, 2026," Babushkin told PTI.

"We are open for promotion of this partnership for the discussion of the expansion of dialogue on air defence system," he added.

Modi-Putin Bonhomie in Tianjin

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin met on the sidelines of the SCO Summit and the bonhomie between the two leaders drew larger attention. The video of Modi and Putin holding hands and walking towards Xi and then all the three forming a close circle as close friends to engage in some conversation went viral on social media.

Putin waited for for about 10 minutes for PM Modi to join him before boarding the car. The two leaders left for the venue together in Putin's Russian-made Aurus limousine, where they had an hour-long conversation before joining their teams for bilateral talks on the sidelines of the SCO summit. The trip to reach the venue for their meeting lasted about 15 minutes, but they spent another 45 minutes in the car to continue their conversation.

PM Modi told Vladimir Putin that India and Russia stood side by side even in difficult times after the Kremlin leader called the Indian prime minister his "dear friend" on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting in China.

News is originally taken from: https://bit.ly/3I36YmY

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