Russia has started supplying India with S-400 air defence missile systems, Russian news agencies reported yesterday citing Dmitry Shugayev, the head of the Russian military co-operation agency.
The supplies put India at risk of sanctions from the US under a 2017 US law aimed at deterring countries from buying Russian military hardware.
“The first supplies have already been started,” Interfax cited Shugayev as saying yesterday at an aerospace trade show in Dubai.
He said that the first unit of an S-400 systems will arrive in India by the end of this year.
The $5.5bn deal for five long-range surface-to-air missile systems, which India says it needs to counter a threat from China, was signed in 2018.
India faces a range of financial sanctions from the US under Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), which names Russia an adversary alongside North Korea and Iran for its actions against Ukraine, interference in the US 2016 elections and help to Syria.
New Delhi said it has a strategic partnership with both the US and Russia while Washington told India it was unlikely to get a waiver from CAATSA.
Last year the US imposed sanctions citing CAATSA on Nato ally Turkey for acquiring S-400 missiles from Russia.
The sanctions targeted the main Turkish defence procurement and development body Presidency of Defence Industries.
Washington also removed Turkey from a F-35 stealth fighter jet programme, the most advanced aircraft in the US arsenal, used by Nato members and other US allies.
Russia said it had offered Turkey its help in developing advanced fighter jets but no agreement has been reached so far.
“We are still at a stage of negotiations on this project,” RIA new agency quoted Shugayev as saying yesterday.
Russia’s delivery of S400 air defence system to India comes ahead of President Vladimir Putin’s visit to New Delhi.
Putin is going to visit the country for the annual India-Russia summit on December 6. The one-day visit will see number of pacts being signed, especially between navies of the two countries.
Putin last visited India in 2018 for the annual summit.
Interestingly, it was during that visit, the contract for S400 system was signed between India and Russia. The visit by Russian president will be his second only foreign visit this year, the first one being to Geneva for summit level meeting with US President Joe Biden.
Defence forms main pillar of the India-Russia relationship as Moscow is New Delhi’s largest defence partner.
