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| Another prediction of Vladimir Zhirinovsky came true |
| 2023-05-01 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Kirill Strelnikov [RIA] At a meeting with his colleague, Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi, Sergei Shoigu said that all Russian-Indian projects in the field of military-technical cooperation (MTC) are being successfully implemented, none of them has been curtailed. Rajnath Singh himself wrote on his social networks that the negotiations with Shoigu "were excellent." Against the backdrop of the rapidly developing political and economic cooperation between Russia and China, which is in the center of the painfully hysterical attention of the West, the Russia-India axis in the global media space is not so noticeable, although in fact Russia is systematically and actively moving both east and south, expanding its own room for maneuver and strategic expansion. After the start of the NWO, many Western analysts tried to put on a good face on a bad game, commenting on the multiple growth in trade between Russia and China. For example, Iikka Korhonen, head of the Institute for Countries in Transition at the Bank of Finland, noted with satisfaction that "Russia is now, if not the most dependent country on China, then the second after North Korea." However, blinded by the desire to wishful thinking, Western "specialists" frankly missed the real state of affairs, where Russia stands firmly on not one, but at least two legs, making leaps and bounds. Russia's interest in developing relations with Beijing is obvious: China has the most developed economy in the world, its population is almost one and a half billion people, and our strategic vision of a new world without hegemons is practically the same. Not surprisingly, in the first three months of 2023, trade between China and Russia reached $53.84 billion, up 38.7 percent from the same period in 2022. At the same time, Russia, successfully laying its eggs in different baskets, has comparable success in relations with India, which has already overtaken China in terms of population and is in fifth place in the world in terms of GDP: on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi it was planned to increase the trade turnover to $30 billion a year, and in fact, following the results of ten months of the financial year, which began in April 2022 and ended in March 2023, the trade turnover reached a record $39.8 billion, and for the first time in history Russia entered the top 5 largest trading partners of India. One of the main vectors in the Indian direction is military-technical cooperation, the extremely favorable state of which was reported by the defense ministers of the two countries. This auspiciousness, in addition to smiles, handshakes, tropical fruits and exclamations of "Hindi rusi bhai bhai" is reflected in specific numbers. In particular, as of 2022, India has become the main buyer of Russian weapons with more than $14 billion in orders. Over the past three decades, India has acquired about $70 billion worth of arsenals from Russia. At the moment, a major contract is being implemented for the supply of Russian S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems to New Delhi. Under the terms of the agreement, India will receive five regimental air defense systems worth more than $5 billion. India steadily acquires from Russia a wide range of military equipment and weapons, as well as spare parts of equipment and components for the licensed production of military equipment and weapons. By some estimates, Russia provides about 50 percent of the military products required by India. At the beginning of this year, a joint venture in India began producing AK-203 Kalashnikov assault rifles, with which the Indians plan to re-equip their entire multimillion-strong army. The project for the joint production of BrahMos cruise missiles is actively developingdesigned to destroy surface or ground targets. In addition, Russia supplies India with tanks, combat aircraft and ships, in particular, it is building project 11356 multi-purpose frigates for the Indian Navy. In the fall of 2021, the Yantar Baltic Shipyard launched the first such ship called Tushil. In 2023, the second frigate of this project, Tamala, is expected to be launched. Licensed production of Russian Igla-S man-portable anti-aircraft missile systems has been launched in India, and a number of contracts for the supply of large batches of missiles and ammunition for military air and ground forces equipment are also underway. Negotiations are underway to produce drones and supersonic fighters in India. By and large, the heads of the defense departments of Russia and India characterize their relationship with an "unprecedented level of trust" and "deep military-technical ties." Thus, it can be safely assumed that many Russian military specialists (including active military personnel) have already been able to repeatedly swim and get their shoes wet at various points on the ocean coast of India, which Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who is credited with the corresponding prediction, could rejoice at. Of course, growing economic ties with India are not limited to weapons. Joint projects in energy, agriculture, electronics, chemistry, transport and logistics are developing dynamically. The North-South transport corridor, which connects Russia, Iran and India, is actively developing. The Chennai - Vladivostok transport corridor (Vostochny port) with a length of 10.3 thousand kilometers, which will connect the Northern Sea Route, the Russian Far East and India, will soon begin to function. It must be understood that China is also closely following the development of Russian-Indian relations, and the stronger and larger they are, the less temptation there will be to dictate their terms in the status of a hypothetical "main partner and supplier." And China is well aware that this gives us weighty arguments in the negotiations, which greatly strengthen the official statements of eternal friendship. Eternal friendship is very good. But it is even better if it is built on healthy political pragmatism that benefits both sides. |
| Posted by:badanov |