Why in News? 

• Recent events of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has long-term implications for India, most significantly on the decades-old defence trade between the two.
• Even as the most immediate impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on India is the evacuation of thousands of Indian students who are stuck there, it is becoming clear there will be long-term implications too.
• New Delhi has been trying to walk a fine line, negotiating its relationships with the United States and other Western nations on one side, and the historically deep and strategic ties with Russia on the other, even as its stand is becoming incrementally critical to Russia as its forces continue to fight in Ukrainian cities.

How strong are Indian and Russian defence ties?

• India was reliant, almost solely on the British, and other Western nations for its arms imports immediately after Independence. 
• But this dependence weaned, and by the 1970s India was importing several weapons systems from the USSR, making it country’s largest defence importer for decades when it came to both basic and sophisticated weapons systems. 
• In fact, it has provided some of the most sensitive and important weapons platforms that India has required from time to time including nuclear submarines, aircraft carriers, tanks, guns, fighter jets, and missiles.
• According to several people, the defence trade, which remains significant, is one of the important causes why India has not taken a critical stand openly against Russia. However, India-Russian ties cannot be viewed only from that perspective.
• The legacy of buying weapons from Russia has made India somewhat dependent on it, and even though India has tried to expand the base of countries from which it buys new military systems, Russian-origin weapons still have the lion’s share. 
• According to one estimate, the share of Russian-origin weapons and platforms across Indian armed forces is as high as 85 per cent.

What is the value of weapons India has bought from Russia?

• Russia is the second largest arms exporter in the world, following only the United States. For Russia, India is the largest importer, and for India, Russia the largest exporter when it comes to arms transfer. 
• Between 2000 and 2020, Russia accounted for 66.5 per cent of India’s arms imports. Of the $53.85 billion spent by India during the period on arms imports, $35.82 billion went to Russia. 
• During the same period imports from the US were worth $4.4 billion, and from Israel it was worth US$ 4.1 billion.
• India remained the main recipient of Russian arms in 2016–20, accounting for 23 per cent of the total, followed by China (18 per cent).

Is India trying to expand its weapons base?

• • Over the last few years there has been a conscious effort to expand the weapons platform bases to not only other countries, but also domestically as well.
  • Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) noted in its international arms transfer trends report last year that between 2011–15 and 2016–20 arms imports by India decreased by 33 per cent. 
  • Russia was the largest arms supplier to India in both 2011–15 and 2016–20. However, Russia’s deliveries dropped by 53 per cent between the two periods and its share of total Indian arms imports fell from 70 to 49 per cent. 
  • In 2011–15 the USA was the second largest arms supplier to India, but in 2016–20 India’s arms imports from the USA were 46 per cent lower than in the previous five-year period, making the USA the fourth largest supplier to India in 2016–20.
  • France and Israel were the second and third largest arms suppliers to India in 2016–20.
  • Russia’s share in Indian arms imports was down to about 50 per cent between 2016 and 2020, but it still remained the largest single importer. 

• But it is important for India to diversify its base, to not become too reliant on any single nation, as it can become a leverage that can be exploited by that nation.

Reference:

1. https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/india-russia-military-weapons-defence-ties-7795804/