Assessing India’s dependence on Russian Weapons

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has long-term implications for India, most significantly on the decades old defence trade between the two. 

India-Russia Defence Cooperation:

• Defence cooperation is an important pillar of the India-Russia strategic partnership.
• It is guided by the Programme for Military Technical Cooperation signed between the two countries.
• It enshrines the interest of the two governments to further develop and strengthen the military and technical cooperation in the sphere of research and development, production and after sales support of armament systems and various military equipment.
• The two sides also have periodic exchanges of armed forces personnel and military exercises.
• India and Russia have an institutionalized structure to oversee the complete range of issues of military technical cooperation.
• The India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Military Technical Cooperation (IRIGC-MTC), set up in 2000, is at the apex of this structure. 

India-Russia Defence ties:

• As per Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Russia is the world’s second largest arms exporter, with a 20% share in the global arms trade between 2016 and 2020, only behind USA (37%).
• For India, Russia is the largest exporter. During 2000-20, Russia accounted for 66.5%, US for 6.9% and Israel for 6.5% of India’s arms import.
• India accounted for 23% of Russia’s arms export followed by 18% to China.
• Ongoing major deals:
• Five units of S-400 Triumf Air defence system. (First of five units have been delivered in December 2021, deployed at Air Force base in Punjab.)
• Manufacturing of around 6 lakh AK-203 rifles at a factory in Amethi.