Russia's most advanced long-range surface-to-air missile defence system will arrive in India by the end of this year. Russia will start supplying its S-400 surface-to-air missile systems to India in the fourth quarter. India had signed a $5-billion deal for S-400 in October 2018 to buy 5 units of the defence system. In 2019 India made its first tranche of payment of around $800 million to Russia.
Now India is facing a range of sanctions from the United States under Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions act. However, the deal was signed in 2016, before CAATS was introduced. India is now on the edge between Russia and the United States. A senior official from the Biden administration called the deal 'a problem' for India-US ties. India has defended the deal by saying that it is at liberty to choose weapon platforms needed and the country from which it would import.
India can not afford to cancel the deal with Russia due to the critical military situation at the India-China border. I have to mention that most of India's military equipment and defence systems come from Russia. The US wants India on its side to contain China's aggression in the Indo-Pacific region
3 comments:
This is a significant amount of money for defense spending. In the grand scheme of things, it likely is very little. However, it is necessary to consider that this spending could have been put toward a different sector such as poverty and welfare. India has one of the highest poverty rates outside of Sub-Saharan Africa. This money may have been utilized more efficiently to assist their people and improve quality of life. However, improving such qualities does not allow for short-term benefits, the benefits (potential increase in GDP because more people working and thus buying more, etc.) would be seen in the long-run. It poses an interesting question as to what is the best, most efficient was to spend such money?
I think spending money on poverty and welfare is much better than spending money on weapons but given the high stress situation on the border with China, I don't think the government has much choice as to where to put the money. It is interesting to note however that China also buys S400 missiles from Russia
India is in a tough situation here. With their problems with China, they are forced to spend money on defense. Looking at this from the outside one might say, why not put that money towards the countries poverty as its people are very poor. The money put into their defense in the grand scheme of things is pennies especially compared to powerhouse countries like the US.
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