India-Russia bilateral summit: India, Russia to form Joint Working Group on military cooperation

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New Delhi: In a step to bolster the military cooperation, India and Russia are likely to form Joint Working Group on Military Cooperation during the two-day visit of the Russian President Vladimir Putin to New Delhi. Putin arrived here on Thursday for the annual India-Russia bilateral summit.

Sources told ANI, “Among the various pacts encompassing the fields of defence, nuclear and trade, an important move is likely to be made to setup the Joint Working Group on Military Cooperation.” The source, on the condition of anonymity, further stated that this is going to be important for the defence and military cooperation between the two countries. It is going to be the nucleus which will not just study the status of the on-going military cooperation but will also act to remove the hurdles faced in such matters and will provide a roadmap for the future, the source added.

Russia is India’s biggest defence supplier. It is the only country which leased the nuclear submarine Chakra to India. Further, a deal for important S-400 missile air defence is expected to be signed along with the deal for additional four stealth frigates. Six such frigates of the similar class are already part of the Indian Navy. The deal for five S-400 Triumf missile air defence systems, likely to be bought, was clouded due to the US’ Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) which was signed into law by United States President Donald Trump. The CAATSA laid sanctions against any country having ‘significant transaction’ with Russia, Iran and North Korea.

Laxman Behera, Research Fellow, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses while accepting the possibility of the formation of Joint Working Group for Military Cooperation, said that “India has to deal with the challenges to maintain the strategic ties with Russia and also to have good relations with the US.” The five components of the Russia-India privileged partnership are politics, development, civil-nuclear cooperation, counter-terrorism and space. India and Russia have raised their bilateral military exercise Indra to the tri-services level. All the three services from both the countries will exercise together, which is first of its kind with any other country.