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Dian Wei
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India's $30 Billion Russian Takeaway
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Tim Marshall October 07, 2010 9:56 AM
There is a Russian proverb: 'Don't buy the house, buy the neighbourhood'. Moscow put this to good use during the Cold War, buying large tracts of political real estate around the world, using violence and trade deals as currency, and pretending it was ideology.
Twenty years after the war ended Moscow's housing stock has dwindled but the legacy of its portfolio still reaps benefits. An example comes this week with the official announcement that India will buy up to 300 Russian Fifth Generation stealth fighter jets in a deal worth $30 billion dollars - the biggest in India's military history.
During the Cold War India bought its military kit off the shelf from Russia. About 75% of equipment still comes from that source although India has a growing domestic defence industry. The Americans have long sought to peel Delhi away from Moscow but this deal shows it has had limited effect.
Next month President Obama will show up in Delhi hawking a much smaller military transport deal. The Russian contract shows us the scale of India's intentions and capabilities notwithstanding the serious blow to its reputation as a modern nation dealt by the fiasco that is the Commonwealth Games.
At the moment they have enough MiG-21 Soviet era fighter jets to make it look as if they have a formidable air force, but the MiG has no place in the future wars and arguably no place in the present given that its nickname is 'The Flying Coffin' due to a dismal safety record. The Pakistanis will be nervous about the Russian deal, but India is spending big bucks not so much with Pakistan in mind as China.
Delhi is building a range of military bases along its northern border to prevent incursions and the fighter jet deal will give it a deterrent threat capable of making the Chinese think twice about aggressive moves. Such has the world changed. The big players are playing, and India is among them.
