Federal-run Rosoboronexport inked a contract with India for supplies of over 300 T-90S tanks for a total worth of $1.24 billion.
Photo: Dmitry Azarov
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Russia’s Tanks Headed for India
Federal-run Rosoboronexport inked a contract with India for supplies of over 300 T-90S tanks for a total worth of $1.24 billion. Despite the problems incurred during implementation of all previous military contracts, Russia has remained the key supplier of military product to India mostly thanks to its readiness to export technology and good personal contacts of Rosoboronexport top management with the local authorities.
India signed past week a big contract for Russia’s tank supplies, said a source with one of federal departments on condition of anonymity. “The matter at stake is over 300 upgraded T-90S tanks. The first consignment consists of roughly 120 tanks,” specified another source familiar with the progress in negotiations. Rosoboronexport declined to comment.
The Times of India reported details yesterday. It emerged that the contract worth $1.237 billion set forth the supplies of 347 T-90S tanks. Once India pays the first tranche, Russia will ship 124 T-90S tanks during 29 months. The remainder will be delivered in 11 months, The Times of India said.
Russia and India had been negotiating the contract for a few years. Delhi eventually decided to clinch another deal with Russia the problems with all previous contracts notwithstanding. Russia is yet the key supplier of weapons and military machinery to India. “India is a very ambitious state. Compromising with the Western countries is difficult for it, so they aren’t particularly eager to transfer the military technology to it,” said Ruslan Pukhov from the RF Defense Ministry. “Apart from Russia, the only state that is ready to transfer technology is Israel, but it implements a number of projects with the United States. India failed to complete the project of creating its own tank, but the German and Britain’s tanks are much more expensive than the Russian ones.”
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 04, 2007
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