NEW DELHI: India’s impending induction of the advanced S-400 Triumf surface-to-air missile systems will usher in “a new stage in our bilateral strategic partnership”, said Russian ambassador Nikolay Kudashev.
“The S-400 is one of the flagship projects in the Russian-Indian military and military-technical cooperation, which historically constitutes the main pillar of the special and privileged strategic partnership between our two friendly countries,” he said, at a ceremony in the run-up to the departure of an Indian military induction team to Russia later this month.
TOI was the first to report on January 11 that India, undeterred by the threat of US financial sanctions, was sending an initial IAF team of almost 100 officers and airmen to Russia for training in operations and maintenance of the S-400 air defence systems.
Under the $5.43 billion (Rs 40,000 crore) contract inked with Russia in October 2018, the deliveries of the five mobile squadrons of the S-400 systems will begin from September-October this year. All five squadrons will be delivered by 2023.
India plans to deploy the highly-automated S-400s, which can detect, track and destroy hostile strategic bombers, jets, spy planes, missiles and drones at a range of 380-km, to cater for threats from both China and Pakistan.
India remains hopeful it will get a “national security waiver” by the incoming Biden administration from the US law CAATSA (Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act), which was enacted in 2017 to prevent countries from buying Russian weapons or Iranian oil.
Kudashev, on his part, said the India-Russia partnership was based on “mutual trust and reflects the true spirit of our bilateral and multilateral commitments in the framework of our vision towards just and equal relations based on the international law and the UN Charter”.
“Coming out of bipolar world and successfully proceeding through the current establishment of the polycentric order, our partnership is becoming even stronger, experiencing new areas and forms of mutually beneficial and forward-looking cooperation,” he said, adding that the Indian-Russian “friendship” was “an important factor of stability in the region and the globe”.