Soon, Indian Air Force (IAF) officers who have already been identified will be leaving for Moscow later this year for training to operate awaited S-400 Triumf advanced air defence missile system from Russia.
The delivery of the missile systems is expected to start from October 2020 and will be completed by April 2023.
The purchase of the S-400 missile system did not feature in the talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the US President Donald Trump when they met on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan on Friday. But Modi and Trump did discuss stepping up bilateral military cooperation between their countries.
Briefing the media in Osaka, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said that the purchase of S-400 missile defence system from Russia did not come up during the talks between the two leaders.
Modi with Trump soon after the Japan-America-India (JAI) trilateral meeting during which Indian Prime Minister Modi had highlighted “the importance India attaches to” the grouping.
India and Russia had inked the $ 5 billion deal for the S-400 Triumf deal believed to be the best in the world, at the end of the annual summit between the two countries in New Delhi in 2018.
However, the US administration has been warning New Delhi of “serious implications’’ on bilateral relationship if it went through with the S-400 deal with Russia. The sanctions have been imposed against Russia under the US Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) law which restricts defence purchases from Russia.
Though there is no clarity on the payment mechanism, sources told Financial express Online that there will be no delays in the delivery of the S-400 air defence systems to India which is expected to significantly enhance India’s air defence capability.
Modi had met President Vladimir Putin at the BRICS leaders meet on the sidelines in Osaka and will be meeting him again for an economic conclave in Vladivostok in Russia in September, for which he was personally invited by the Russian leader.
As has been reported earlier, these missiles will be deployed not only in the National Capital Region but also the Mumbai-Baroda Industrial Corridor and will more than double the air defence capability of the nation and IAF in particular.
China was the first country to acquire the S-400, followed by Turkey.
Source: FE
Image Courtesy:AvionNews
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