At a joint press conference with Foreign Secretary Antony Blinken in Washington on Tuesday, a journalist asked External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar whether Russia would be able to meet India’s defense needs given the pressures it is under – and how New Delhi is considering diversification. Jaishankar, also a member of the Cabinet Committee on Security, used the opportunity to outline broad conceptual support for India’s military procurement.
Key principles highlighted by the minister include technology, capabilities, terms/prices, multi-sourcing and getting the best possible deal to serve the national interest. First, he said, India did not face any particular problems in terms of “service and supply of spare parts of the equipment” that India has acquired from Russia in the past. He then said that where India got its military equipment and platforms was neither a new issue nor had it changed much due to geopolitical tensions.
“I think we’re looking at opportunities all over the world. We look at the quality of the technology, the quality of the capabilities, the terms under which that particular equipment is offered, and we make a choice that we believe is in our national interest. In the last 15 years, the minister said, India has bought a lot from the US “if you consider aircraft for example – C-17, C-130, P-8 or Apache helicopter or Chinooks or howitzers, M777 howitzers”. “We did so from France when we recently bought their Rafale jets. We did so from Israel.” Jaishankar said India has a tradition of multi-sourcing and the priority was to get the best deal possible. “How to get the best deal out of a competitive situation is really what it’s all about.”
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