On January 17, 2020 Russia has announced to deliver 5 units of S-400 air defence systems to India by 2025 while its production has already begun. The announcement was made by Russian Deputy Chief of Mission Roman Babushkin. India and Russia signed a deal of $5.43 billion for the procurement of these S-400 systems during the 19th edition of India-Russia Annual Bilateral Summit held in New Delhi in 2018.
RIC meet:Â
It was also announced that the Union Minister of External Affairs(MEA) Shri Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, will visit Russia on March 22&23 to attend the Russia-Indian-China(RIC) trilateral Foreign Ministers’ Meeting to be held in Vladivostok, Russia
S-400 and other defence announcements by Russia:
i.S-400:Â It is an upgraded version of the S-300 missiles that were previously available only to the Russian defence forces.
- Manufacturer: S400 is manufactured by Almaz-Antey and has been in service in Russia since 2007.
ii.Other announcements:Â Indian Armed forces will receive the 1st batch of 5,000 Kalashnikov rifles in 2020 itself.
- Apart from this, after signing a contract, 60 Ka-2267 helicopters will be supplied to India as well as 140 helicopters of the same type will also be produced. Soon, joint production of spare parts of military hardware will also be implemented.
iii.India-Russia contracts:Â In 2019, the contracts between India-Russia came close to about $16 billion.
About Russia:
Capital-Â Moscow.
Currency-Â Russian ruble
Prime minister-Â Mikhail Vladimirovich Mishustin
President-Â Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.
