Defence News
Delhi regards forthcoming transition of Ukrainian defense industry to NATO standards as factor increasing reliability of Ukrainian weapons
India views the expansion of military-technical cooperation with Ukraine as part of its defense strategy and regards Kyiv’s planned transfer of the defense industry complex to NATO standards as a factor increasing the reliability of Ukrainian defense products, Indian Ambassador to Ukraine Mr. Manoj Kumar Bharti has said.
During a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday, in response to a question from the agency, whether Kyiv’s policy of transferring defense production to NATO standards could become a catalyst for the expansion of the bilateral Ukrainian-Indian military-technical cooperation in the current diversification of the Indian defense market, the Indian diplomat said:
“I am confident that this [the transition of the Ukrainian defense sector to NATO-standards] will strengthen the quality standards of Ukrainian defense products and add understanding [to Indian customers] that the defense sector of Ukraine is reliable.”
Bharti said that the development of bilateral military-technical cooperation with Ukraine is part of the defense strategy of the government of India. “If we talk about cooperation in the procurement of Ukrainian arms and components, this will in any case be taken into account in India’s defense budget,” he said.
The Indian diplomat also ruled out the possibility of influencing India’s defense budget in the medium term of a new undeclared world arms race, saying that Delhi had “already taken care of everything,” and the arms race, he said, “will not affect India’s defense budget.”
The Indian diplomat confirmed that the defense market of India is one of the most dynamically developing in the world. According to him, a large-scale program of rearmament of the Indian Armed Forces is provided through the generally accepted procedure of open international tenders. “And the complex of Ukrainian defense industry is very well aware of the procedure for applying to participate in these international tenders,” he said.
India is one of the long-standing and promising partners of Ukraine in the military-technical cooperation: more than 20-year military-technical cooperation in the field of military shipbuilding binds the parties. In 2009 the parties concluded one of the largest contracts in the field of bilateral military-technical cooperation worth about $400 million for the repair and modernization of An-32 of Indian Air Force.
The experience of cooperation includes, among other things, partnership in the field of modernization of combat aviation, as well as armored vehicles. Ukraine and India signed an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the field of military-technical cooperation in December 2010.
Earlier, the Indian side also confirmed its interest in the development of military-technical cooperation with Ukraine in the field of repair and extension of the Indian Air Force’s helicopter technology resource, the transfer of technology, the development of production of military products in India with the assistance of Ukrainian enterprises, and joint scientific development.
By 2019, Ukraine aims to multiply the volume of military-technical cooperation with India, bringing its volume to $500 million per year.
