One of the major highlights of defence minister AK Antony’s visit to Russia this week will be the formal bilateral signing of their unique military cooperation for another 10 years.
But the euphoria of this continuity in military ties — under which the defence ministers meet annually and several empowered groups have regular consultations — will fail to cover up for the serious troubles that have crept into the historic Indo-Russian military relations.
According to military sources, most major defence procurement programmes from Russia have been delayed and many face serious challenges to their existence. Most high-profile of all is the stand-off over Russia’s demand for a huge hike in payment for Admiral Gorshkov, which could be resolved when Antony is in Moscow this week, sources said.
But the delivery of the carrier has been set back to 2013, indicate sources on the eve of Antony’s visit. The carrier, originally meant to be delivered in 2008, was delayed to 2012, and now, indications are that there will be another delay.
In 2008, Russia asked for another $1.2 billion over and above the original contract amount of $1.7 billion to complete the work on Gorshkov. “There’s no real push from the top,” a senior military source , assessing the Indo-Russian military relations said. While defence purchases from US and Israel have “support from several quarters”, Russian projects are suffering from lack of a “mission purpose”, he said.
Most major military programmes between the two sides are also suffering from delays and lack of enthusiasm. According to reports from Moscow, serious delays have cropped up in the project to jointly develop a military transport aircraft. The first prototype was planned for 2006, but since then it is being postponed annually.
The proposal to jointly develop a fifth generation fighter has not taken off. Officially, it is on track, but a lack of will is seen in the pace with which it is moving forward. Not very different is the story of India’s plans to lease a nuclear submarine from Russia. It has also been delayed for months now, and is not expected to join the navy before next year.
