TIL Desk/World/Moscow/ Russia’s foreign minister has said it is up to India to decide what kinds of weapons it wants and how to proceed with military deals signed in 2015. Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to visit India next week. In October 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed a deal worth Rs. 39,000 crore with the Russian president to purchase Moscow’s most advanced air defence system, the S-400.
“As for the other deals which are being negotiated, I haven’t heard anything about the timing, postponement, about putting anything on hold, and I understand that India will take sovereign decision on how to proceed and what kind of weapons India needs,” Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on the sidelines of the UNGA meet.
The S-400 missile system can track some 300 targets and shoot down around three dozen targets simultaneously over a range of 400 kilometres. The sensitive radars of the system are thought to be able to detect even stealth aircraft which present a very small radar cross-section and are often impossible for other systems to track. Putin will be in India for a two-day visit on October 4 and 5 for the annual India-Russia summit with a focus on boosting bilateral ties between the two countries.
