US sanctions have no major impact on Indo-Russian defense ties: Envoy

NEW DELHI: US sanctions against Russian companies have no major impact on the Russian-Indian defense industry cooperation, including negotiations on the supply of Russia’s S-400 Triumf air defense systems to the South Asian country, Russian Ambassador to India Nikolay Kudashev has emphasised, a week after Indian Defence Minister announced that India is going ahead with the deal.

"[Russia and India] remain the closest partners, and all our defense industry agreements are being implemented. It concerns the purchase of S-400s and the joint production of Ka-226 helicopters, and many other projects. Do the sanctions create difficulties? Yes, they do, of a certain kind. But, frankly speaking, these difficulties are surmountable," Kudashev told leading Russian media body Sputnik, adding that solutions to overcome these obstacles would undoubtedly be found.

"I can’t say that the US attitude toward Indo-Soviet and Indo-Russian relations including the military-technical cooperation has ever been very friendly. The current situation is not an exception. A distinctive feature of the present time is the sanctions against Russian producers, which are a means of unfair competition and which are pursuing the goal of driving Russia out of the Indian defense sector and its military and political space," Kudashev explained.

"Our ties in the international sphere are characterized by the common positions on the key current issues such as the need to strengthen the central coordinating role of the United Nations in international affairs, strict compliance with international law, the commitment to disarmament and non-proliferation. By the way, as you may know, at the recent special session of the conference of the state parties to the CWC (Chemical Weapons Convention) India voted against the destructive British draft resolution. We are united by the rejection of unilateral sanctions, interest in the humanization of international economic order, and political settlement of crises, including Syria and Ukraine," Kudashev noted when asked about Indo-Russian partnership in multilateral bodies.

"Naturally, our common views are not confined to that. They are reiterated on such influential platforms, formats and organizations as BRICS, the SCO, RIC. Our colleagues and we believe that BRICS is primarily a new model of building intergovernmental relations. This is a vibrant, developing format. Our BRICS agenda is well-known: information security, energy, space exploration, economic empowerment of women, interregional consolidation within BRICS. On all these issues we feel understanding of our Indian colleagues and partners. With the direct support from Russia, India has recently joined the SCO, along with Pakistan. New Delhi is an active provider of regional security in Central Asia and its neighborhood. India participates in the SCO–Afghanistan Contact Group. RIC (Russia, India, China) is an equally promising format. It is characterized by its diversification of ties. Apart from high-level contacts, RIC is enriched with the working level dialogue on regional issues, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as the contacts between young diplomats. Besides, India actively participates in the dialogue on building a new regional security architecture in Asia and in the Pacific. This dialogue takes place on various levels including Jakarta. We rest our great hopes upon this dialogue. Close cooperation between Russia and India within the aseanocentric mechanisms, such as ASEAN Dialogues, the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and the mechanism of East Asia Summit", the envoy further explained.