India still largely depends on Russian weapons, despite a major dip: report

New Delhi: India continues to depend mainly on Russia for weapons although Russian imports have dropped by 19 percent since 2018, says an international body.

The cut in Russian weapons comes as India’s borders with Pakistan and China continues to remain tense, often showing likelihood of conflict.

The report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said Russia was the largest supplier of arms to India in both 2013-17 and 2018-22.

The independent think tank, which studies conflict, weapon sales and disarmament, said Russia’s total arms exports to India fell from 64 per cent to 45 per cent.

India’s reliance on Russia weapons factored in New Delhi’s neutral stance on Ukraine war, Bloomberg reported.

Despite huge pressure from powers including the US, Japan and Australia, India stuck to its stance.

However, New Delhi asked the parties to the war to settle disputes through talks, according to Bloomberg.

Later, India abstained from voting in UN condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, India began to purchase Russian oil to an extent that Russia is now nearly its top oil supplier.

While continuing to be world’s largest arms importer since 1993, India has started manufacturing defense equipment at home.

This has to do with western sanctions on Russia which affected weapon imports from the nation, according to the report by Bloomberg.

A cut on Russian arms imports to India led to increased competition from countries like France which saw French imports jumping to 489 percent over the five year period since 2018.

Paris has become the second largest weapon supplier to India in 2018-22, outshining the US, according to the report.