|
The strategic relations between India and Russia date back to the Soviet period,
especially in the field of defence cooperation, thus making both countries
traditional partners. Being one of the largest purchasers of Russian military
equipment and systems, and the fact that 80 percent of all weapons currently
used by the Indian Army and Navy are of Russian make, bears testimony to this
partnership. Today, this partnership has evolved from being merely
‘buyer-seller’ into jointly designing, producing and marketing of defence
technologies and systems. Our defence bilateral relations have been
institutionalised through the India-Russian Inter-Governmental Commission on
Military Technical Cooperation (IRIGC-MTC) operating at the defence ministerial
level.
Evolution from Traditional Partners to Strategic Partners
India has utilized Russian weapon systems—MIGs, the Sukhoi fighter aircraft;
AN-12 and 32 and IL-76 transport aircraft; MI-8, 17, 24 and 26 helicopters;
PT-76, T-55, T-72 and T-90 tanks; and various categories of missile boats,
frigates and destroyers for the Navy; besides a number of missiles, artillery
and other weapon systems. Besides these, our major ongoing military technical
cooperation projects include joint production and marketing (to third country
markets) of Brahmos missiles, and the development of the Fifth Generation
Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) and Multi-Role Transport Aircraft (MTA).
Building Long Standing Military Ties
The visit of Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to Moscow as part of the
12th Annual Summit from December 15-17, 2011 assumes enormous significance.
These summit meetings have been institutionalised under the “Declaration of
Strategic Partnership between India and the Russian Federation” in October 2000
in New Delhi. This summit focussed on expanding cooperation in nuclear energy
and defence, apart from signing deals in areas of education and science and
technology and discussing issues of global nature.
Five deals were signed during PM Singh’s visit, including the management of fly
ash residue at thermal plants in Siberia, MoU between anti-monopolies agencies,
MoU on drug quality and safety standards, and on educational exchange programmes.
One of the important deals was the fresh agreement involving the Su-30 MKI
Aircraft Licensed Production Expansion in India for 42 Units, called Super
Sukhois, with Russian technical and equipment support, thus bringing the fleet
to 272. As per the deal, these would include some of the features found in FGFA
and would be deployed primarily with the Brahmos cruise missile, thus becoming
the main support to the air fleet as India plans to phase out the 120 MIGs
eventually. The Sukhoi deal, estimated at over Rs. 20,000 crores, would be
operational in 3 years, with the first delivery expected in 2014 and the last by
2018.
The Russian leaders – President Dmitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir
Putin – gave assurances on the deals forged in earlier summits on adhering to
deadlines related to the FGFA and MTA. Premier Putin gave assurances to PM Singh
regarding the delivery of the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov (INS
Vikramaditya) by January-end 2012. Similarly, the Akula-II class ‘Nerpa’ nuclear
attack submarine to be leased for 10 years to the Indian Navy will reach Indian
shores by the end of January 2012, thus strategically reinforcing Indian vigil
in the Indian Ocean and South China Sea. It will also help our personnel to
acquire skills in operating the nuclear submarine, INS Arihant. The lease
contract is estimated at some $900 million.
Nuclear Energy Cooperation
In the area of nuclear energy cooperation, India intends to build nuclear power
plants with Russian help and overcome its current deficit of 50,000 to 60,000
MW. Kudankulam nuclear power plant (KNPP) is Rs. 13,000 Crore investment project
constructed with the assistance of Russia’s Atomstroyexport and is based on the
1988 agreement signed during the Rajiv Gandhi – Gorbachev Summit. The Russian
side undertook to provide technical support, supply of equipment and materials
as well as training and education of the Indian staff of the NPP. The
functioning of KNPP-I and II has been stalled due to protests by locals over
safety measures in the light of the Fukushima meltdown. PM Manmohan Singh has
offered assurances that adequate measures have been taken in the form of
outreach programmes and assigning a group of experts for negotiations. The PM
assured that KNPP-I will be operational in a few weeks, followed by KNPP-II
after 6 months.
The deals on KNPP-III and IV could not be signed due to technical problems over
nuclear liability clauses. It must be noted that India today faces problems over
the civilian nuclear deal with USA on the new guidelines issued by the Nuclear
Suppliers Group (NSG). These new guidelines impose a ban on sale of sensitive
nuclear technologies for enrichment and reprocessing (ENR) to countries like
India that have not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty. However, Russia has
offered an alternative to host an ENR unit on its soil and offer shares to India
as this will take care of international obligations with respect to
non-proliferation. However, this offer needs to be studied, and in the meantime,
India needs to contest and bargain with the NSG, particularly with USA, on the
new guidelines which now overlooks India’s impeccable nuclear record. Moreover,
there are no takers currently for the supply of reactors from the USA. This is
due to India’s new nuclear liability bill that imposes a liability on operators
for 80 years for any accident at a plant. Though India and Russia did not sign
any agreement for the KNPP III and IV units, both finalised the terms of
reference for the Line of Credit for the same, which gives a glimmer of hope
that agreements on construction of two more units at KNPP will be signed at a
later stage.
However, PM Manmohan Singh reiterated that India intends to adhere to the
roadmap on nuclear cooperation signed during Russian PM Putin’s visit in 2010.
India proposed an alternative site at Haripur (West Bengal), where two units of
nuclear reactors were to be installed, so as to avoid the Kudankulam protests.
In terms of civil nuclear energy cooperation, Russia has always extended it
support, including the supply of nuclear fuel to the Tarapur Reactor. Keeping in
mind the democratic ethos within the country and its bilateral commitments, Dr
Singh’s assurances underscore the fact that Russia has been our invaluable
partner during times of restrictions on nuclear commerce. Moreover, Russia
reiterated its support for India’s memberships of the 46-nation Nuclear
Suppliers Group.
Despite the non-signing of agreements on KNPP-III and IV units and Russia’s
failure to win the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) deal, the defence
and nuclear energy relations have been consistent because of reliability on both
sides. Today, our partnership with Russia is not confined to weapon systems
alone, rather it has diversified, though not on a large scale, to sectors such
as steel, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, coal, diamonds, telecommunications, oil
& gas and IT. As both states attempt to modernize their armed forces and weapon
systems, there is a need to address this critical issue. This is because a major
portion of India’s armaments are imported from Russia and both states have
signed deals for joint designing and production. Apart from this, India needs to
engage with Russia with regard to the latter’s close ties with Pakistan. This
developing relationship can have adverse repercussions on India’s defence
capabilities that have been either imported or jointly produced with Russian
help. For instance, no punitive action was taken against China when it reverse
engineered Russian weapon systems. Hence, there is an urgent need to incorporate
this aspect, excluded during the recently-concluded summit, in future dialogues.
|