By Yashwant Raj Washington 7th of September : India must be concerned that its biggest arms importer Russia is scouring the globe to build its arsenal that was severely depleted because of the invasion of Ukraine.
Russia has turned towards North Korea for weapons, according to US officials mentioned in news reports.
Moscow is planning to purchase “millions of rockets and artillery shells” from Pyongyang According to these reports.
And they are designed to fill the gaps due to the ongoing Ukraine conflict and the severe sanctions put in place by the West which may be making it hard for Russia to obtain materials to make replacements.
The US had earlier stated it was believed that Russia had purchased drones from Iran.
Russia was the second-largest exporter of arms between the years 2017 to 2021 with 19 percent of the market share as per the report of March 2022 of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) an internationally-respected monitor of international transfers of arms.
The United States was the top exporter during the same time with 39 percent market share.
India is the world’s biggest importer of arms, just as it was in the same periodof time, with 11 percent of all weapons sold globally.
India is also the biggest buyers of Russia arms, taking up 28 percent of Russia’s total arms exports between 2017 and 2021.
Russia is India’s largest supplier and accounts for 46 percent of all arms purchases However, New Delhi has been diversifying its sources of supply and is purchasing more of France and also from the United States, in that purchase.
The imports of arms from Russia have dropped by 70% in the period between 2012 and 2016.
While they are decreasing, India’s arm imports from Russia are still a substantial quantity .They are often used in defense – or in justification of its reluctance of criticising Russia for its international crimes, like the invading of Ukraine.
Historical ties dating back to the former Soviet Union are also said to be a factor particularly in 1971, when the US had deployed its Seventh Fleet to intimidate India.
India has been reducing its dependence on Russian military hardware, as the figures mentioned earlier show, however it still buys an enormous amount of expensive equipment, such as the S-400 air defence missile system.These are now arriving in India which is being monitored by the United States that has said this agreement could trigger punitive measures under the 2017 US law that imposes secondary sanctions against purchasers of large quantities of Russian military equipment.
To the annoyance of some in the US and other western nations, India has not condemned the Russian invasion in a clear and unambiguous manner, and has increased the purchases of discount Russian oil, mainly because it is in the national interest of India.
However, if the Ukraine conflict gets worse for Russia, New Delhi would be keeping an eye on the situation as its largest arms supplier shifts to new suppliers like Iran as well as North Korea, neither country is able to boast of an industry that is robust in manufacturing defence products.
In reality, Americans believe that the Iranian drones have been an issue for the Russians.
Russia received several shipment of Mohajer-6 and Shahed series unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) over a span of several days in August According to US officials who, on conditions of anonymity reported to reporters that Moscow plans to purchase hundreds of these UAVs.
The officials have stated using intelligence sources, that there were technical issues with these cars.
The Ukraine invasion has been expensive for Russia.
Ukrainian military claimed on Friday it killed 50,150 Russian military personnel since the war began in February.The war destroyed 2,077 tanks as well as 4,484 armored combat vehicles 1,179 artillery vehicles, 876 unmanned aerial vehicles 236 helicopters, 207 aircrafts 15 ships/boats 3305 vehicles, fuel tankers 209 cruise missiles, the 109 parts of special equipment and 156 anti-aircraft war systems.These figures have not been independently verified.
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