According to Russian Ambassador Denis Alipov, Russia and India are “extremely eager” to make sure that the Ukraine crisis “does not impede” their defense cooperation and that “barriers” brought on by “negative external influences” are successfully reduced.
The envoy told PTI that Russia is providing India with S-400 Triumf surface-to-air missile systems on schedule and that both parties are keeping in “real-time” contact on important matters pertaining to relations in the defense industry.
The timing of Alipov’s remarks coincided with concerns in some Indian circles that the situation in Ukraine would cause Russia to delay providing India’s armed forces with critical military gear and systems.
“One of the main tenets of the Russian-Indian special and privileged strategic partnership is defense cooperation. To assure its continuity, both of our nations are highly driven “Alipov declared.
Using other payment and logistics options, he said, “we were able to successfully reduce constraints generated by negative external causes and respond to new circumstances.”
Alipov responded, “It is proceeding nicely according to the schedule,” when asked directly about the supply of the S-400 missile systems.
Despite the US’s warning that moving forward with the arrangement would result in American penalties, India struck a USD 5 billion agreement with Russia in October 2018 to purchase five S-400 air defense missile systems.
The first missile regiment was delivered by Russia in December, and it has since been stationed to protect portions of the Pakistani and Chinese borders in the north.
It has been reported that Russia has virtually finished delivering the main parts for the second regiment of the military systems.
According to Alipov, any delivery or payment delays would not have a significant impact on Russia’s overall supply of military equipment to India.
“To address them, both parties remain in constant contact. While Russia makes every effort to timely fulfill all of its commitments, we currently observe good trends in the implementation of bilateral agreements and contracts, including on the supply of S-400 systems “said the envoy