INDIA: India signed three military protocols with Russia yesterday, but was unable to finalise deals worth over $3 billion involving the lease of two nuclear submarines and four nuclear-capable long range maritime reconnaissance aircraft and acquiring a Soviet aircraft carrier.
After hours of intense negotiations the visiting Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Ilya Klebanov, and the Indian Defence Minister, Mr George Fernandes, said they had been unable to agree on the price of the military hardware that once acquired would severely alter the regional strategic and military balance.
"The technical discussions [for the bombers and aircraft carrier] have been completed. The price negotiation is what needs to be done," Mr Fernandes told a joint press conference. It is difficult to forecast how long this will take, he added.
There was also no sign of India leasing two Russian nuclear submarines to help the navy expand its growing operational responsibilities and to counter increasing Chinese expansion in the Indian Ocean.
"I am not ready to address the question concerning nuclear-powered submarines, because I am not holding negotiations on this point," Mr Klebanov said. "We have reached agreement [in principle\] on the Admiral Gorshkov [aircraft carrier] and two TU 22M bombers," Mr Klebanov said. The bombers are to counter neighbouring Pakistan's P3C Orion and Atlantique-I aircraft and to bolster the Indian navy's assets in the Indian Ocean region. The aircraft carrier is to provide India with a "blue water" capability that smaller countries in the region term "expansionist".
India has been discussing the purchase of the 44,500 tonne Admiral Gorshkov carrier since the mid-1990s which Russia has agreed to give Delhi for the cost of its refit, estimated at around $750 million. India is also negotiating to buy around 40 MiG 29K fighter's for the carrier's air group for over $1.3 billion.
The three agreements signed yesterday, however, involved joint collaboration in warship building, developing land-based systems for the army and for the aviation sector.
Cold war ally Moscow has been India's largest supplier of military hardware for over three decades. Over 70 per cent of all India's defence equipment is of Soviet or Russian origin. Since independence in 1947 India has been to war thrice with Pakistan and once with China over territorial disputes that remain unresolved.
While relations with China are improving, those with Pakistan have deteriorated rapidly over the 55-year old dispute concerning Kashmir. The Indian and Pakistan armies are currently locked in a standoff along their common border following the suicide attack on India's parliament last December for which Delhi blames Islamabad.
Close military and nuclear links between China and Pakistan also concern India and contribute to its military build-up against its nuclear neighbours.
The Indian navy fears threats from China will multiply over the next decade. China has the second largest naval force in Asia and the fifth largest in the world after the US, Russia, Britain and France in terms of major combatants and has established its presence in the Indian Ocean region.
Its assets include one Xia-class nuclear submarine armed with 12 nuclear-tipped CSS-N-3 submarine launched ballistic missiles with a range of over 1,340 km, five other nuclear-powered submarines, over 50 diesel-electric boats, 18 destroyers and 35 frigates.
The Pakistan navy poses the "medium term" threat to India's maritime security.
Though much smaller in size, it is modernising itself with superiority in missile-armed maritime strike aircraft. With the commissioning of all three new French Agosta 90-B diesel-electric submarines by the year-end, along with three American P-3C Orion maritime strike aircraft, Pakistan can effectively conduct "sea denial" operations against Indian shipping, officials said.