India shifting away from Russian weapons - media

This was reported by Reuters with reference to Indian sources, Ukrinform saw.

The world's largest arms importer, India is gradually reorienting towards the West, as the U.S. seeks to strengthen ties in the Indo-Pacific region.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Russia has covered 65% of India's arms purchases worth more than $60 billion over the past two decades, but the war in Ukraine has accelerated the push to diversify India's arms base.

India is unlikely to sign any major military agreement with Russia as it would be “red line” for Washington, according to said Nandan Unnikrishnan, a Russia expert at the Observer Research Foundation think tank in New Delhi.

Russia has publicly urged India to strengthen defense ties, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi has focused on domestic production using Western technology, experts and officials said.

Such efforts fit better with Modi's Make in India program, aimed at encouraging domestic production, writes Reuters. India plans to spend nearly $100 billion on defense orders over the next decade, according to India's defense minister.

As noted, India and the U.S. plan to pace up technological cooperation and joint production in the defense sector. Last year, the two countries signed an agreement under which General Electric will produce engines for its fighter jets in India. It was the first such concession by the U.S. to a non-allied nation.

In addition, according to Reuters sources, India is eyeing purchases of French fighter jets for its newest aircraft carrier, and wants to build submarines based on French, German, or Spanish technology, as well as fighter jets powered by American and French engines.

India will continue to develop cooperation in various directions to simultaneously maintain ties with Russia and balance them with ties with the West, but it will not be an even distribution, believes Swasti Rao, an expert on Eurasia with the state-run Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, India is changing its attitude toward Russia's war against Ukraine and is gradually inclined to the opinion that the war should be ended as soon as possible, said the founder, honorary director of the Council for Strategic and Defense Studies, associate professor with the Center for International Politics, Organization and Disarmament at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Happymon Jacob.