By IANS,
New Delhi: Russia, which was once India’s principal source of arms imports but which has seen its market share steadily declining over the years, will aim to reassert itself at Asia’s largest defence exposition here Feb 15-18, with 31 organisations, including six major companies in the field of military-technical cooperation, showcasing their wares.
And, indicative of the importance the Indian military hardware market has for Russia, its Vice Premier Sergey Sobyanin, is expected to participate in the inauguration of the DefExpo land and naval defence systems exhibition Monday.
Among the Russian companies participating are SC Russian Technologies, Rosoboronexport, the Central Design Bureau for Marine Engineering and the KBP Instrument Design Bureau, who will be displaying almost 500 items, including 26 full-scale models, a Russian embassy statement said.
Among the items on display will be navigation systems, portable low-range radar stations, portable mortar reconnaissance radars, rifle scopes and electronic collimator sights and high-explosive fragmentation munitions.
“Attention of specialists will be drawn to middle and short range air defence systems and an artillery position reconnaissance radar station,” the statement said.
Rosoboronexport, through which Russia’s arms exports are channelised, is hopeful that participation in the DefExpo “will become an important milestone in the expansion of military-technical cooperation of Russia with India and other countries of the region”, the statement added.
According to the sources in the Russian delegation to the exposition, “several contracts on acquisition of Russian armament and defence equipment are expected to be discussed during negotiations within the framework of the exhibition”.
Russia, and the Soviet Union before it, once accounted for almost 70 percent of the military hardware India imported and from the 1960s, is estimated to have sold equipment worth $30 billion. With deals worth $1,500 million annually, Russia is still India’s largest arms supplier but countries like Israel and the US, as also France and Britain, are fast catching up.
Israel is estimated to have annually sold arms and equipment worth $1 billion since 2001.