India to go ahead with S-400 defence deal with Russia

The defence ministry will approach the apex Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) for approval to purchase five units of Russian S-400 air defence systems.

Updated on: May 31, 2018, 23:16:27 IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | By Shishir Gupta

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India will push ahead with its deal to buy the S-400 air defence systems from Russia despite opposition from the US, defence ministry officials said on condition of anonymity.

Russian S-400 missile air defence systems drive during the military parade to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the battle of Stalingrad in World War Two, in the city of Volgograd, Russia. (REUTERS File Photo)

According to them, the defence ministry will approach the apex Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) for approval to purchase five units of Russian S-400 air defence systems.

They added that the ministry has received no instructions as of now to stall the contract in the wake of the US red-flagging the $5.5 billion deal.

The Trump administration has warned India of the consequences of this purchase from Russia and said it could curtail military cooperation with the United States.

The officials said the CCS headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will take the final decision now that both the countries have completed negotiations to close the deal.

The defence ministry’s view is that Russia, which has already sold the system to China, could also sell it to Pakistan, perhaps through China, if India reneges on the deal at this stage.

In the past decade, Russian RD-93 engines were supplied to Pakistan through the China route for JF-17 fighters despite objections in writing from
India.

While India has taken note of objections raised by William Thornberry, the powerful Chairman of the US House Armed Services Committee and the ambit of the Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act (CATSA), it is open to sharing each other’s security concerns. The purchase of S-400 system will be up for discussion at the two-plus-two dialogue between Indian foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman with their US counterparts secretary of state Mike Pompeo and secretary of defense Jim Mattis on July 6 at Washington. It is learnt that at the two-plus-two dialogue the two sides will flag security concerns over the contract and how to best come out of a sticky situation without any ramification on the close bilateral ties.

The officials said that New Delhi has already used back channels to explain India’s concerns and the need for a strong air defence system given the neighbourhood. The Indian Air Force (IAF), given the advance aerial capabilities of China and Pakistan, needs the S-400 to protect its air bases.

Prime Minister Modi’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval ia believed to have made made quiet calls to both the White House and the Kremlin to convince both the countries that India is too big a nation to belong to any camp and that it takes all decisions in its own national interest.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shishir Gupta
Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.Read More

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