Kochi: India and Russia have reiterated to reinforce their decades-long trade and military cooperation by signing agreements including the Rs 5000 crore AK 203 rifles deal.
But how India is going to tackle its valued buddy US who is against any of its allies helping Russia sell its arms. The US had passed CAATSA act in 2017 empowering it to impose sanctions on those violating the act.
India and Russia had agreed on the 5.5 billion dollar deal to get the S-400 surface to air missile system in 2018 overlooking the Trump administration’s warning. The US had even imposed sanctions on NATO ally Turkey for acquiring the missile system. China was the first country to acquire it prompting India to go for it.
On the US sanction threats, Russia says India and Russia were part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization
(SCO) and it was normal for the member countries to engage in trade.
India is in a tight spot as on one hand it is worried over growing Russia-China cooperation and on the other hand it does not want to antagonize the US with which it has a robust trade ties.
India trade export to the US was over 53 bn dollars and import of 34.3 bn dollars whereas India’s Import from Russia was only 5.4 bn dollars and exports 2.6 bn dollars.
Interestingly, New Delhi’s import from its rival China was 68.4 bn dollars and export of 21.9 bn dollars.
The booming trade between Russia and China is also a worrying factor for India as China’s export to Russia was 54.9 bn dollars and import 49 bn dollars.
The US claims its THAAD missile system is a parallel to the S-400 system but has poor patronage.
The trade statistics are collected from the last few years.
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