Global Times recently reported that, according to Russian and Indian media reports, Russia has begun to deliver the S-400 air defense missile system to India, and will complete the delivery of the first batch of S-400 missiles when Putin visits India next month. The United States wants to impose sanctions on India for this, but it also fears that, as a result, India may fall to Russia. Recently, The U.S. has been trying to engage India as an ally. Nonetheless, this Russian deal did bring serious obstacles to strengthening political and military relations between Washington and New Delhi. It is puzzling that India is buying the same system that China also bought. It thereby suffers the risk that China will have full knowledge of the system’s technical details. On the other hand, it is understandable that most of India’s current mature air defense systems are medium and short-range missiles. There are not many choices for missiles with a maximum range of 250 kilometers in the market. The S-400 makes sense when India wants to establish multi-source weapons procurement channels.
Source: Global Times, November 15, 2021
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