Ahead of the recent visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russia had been making a strong pitch to expand defence ties with India, including making offers to sell fifth-generation Su-57 fighter jets, submarines and S-500 air defence system, which is already operational with the Russian defence forces in limited numbers.
There were even reports of a dozen executives from top Indian defence players, including from Adani Defence and Bharat Forge, attending meetings in Russia to discuss possible joint ventures—something which Bharat Forge and Adani Group vehemently denied.
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As India aims to become a global manufacturing hub, from being one of the world's biggest arms importers, a report suggested that Russia met with a tepid response from the Indian side to its pitch to expand the defence cooperation.
“India didn’t show much interest in the equipment offered by Russia. The Russians were expecting major movement on the sidelines of the visit and are still pursuing the proposals. We are very much focusing on the development of indigenous products,” The Hindu quoted a senior official as saying.
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It is to be noted that there were no big-ticket defence announcements during the visit of Putin to India, and the focus was more on the maintenance of Russian origin equipment. A joint statement had merely stated, "Both sides agreed to encourage joint manufacturing in India of spare parts, components, aggregates and other products for maintenance of Russian origin arms and defence equipment under the Make-in-India programme through transfer of technology."
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has been constantly reiterating the need to make the country self-reliant in defence, saying that the defence ecosystem in India will have to grow in a "bigger, bolder, faster mode." He recently observed that in the last 10 years, defence production has increased from ₹46,000 crore to ₹1.5 lakh crore, with the private sector contributing ₹33,000 crore.
