NEW DELHI (REUTERS, AFP, BLOOMBERG) - Moscow and New Delhi signed a deal on Monday (Dec 6) that will see India produce more than 600,000 AK-203 assault rifles, said Russian weapons maker Kalashnikov.
The deal was struck during Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to India for talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The two countries also signed a deal on military-technical cooperation until 2031, the Tass news service quoted the Kremlin as saying.
Mr Putin was expected during his visit to seek the strengthening of military and energy ties with a traditional ally, which is being courted by Washington.
In its efforts to address a rising China, Washington has set up the Quad security dialogue with India, Japan and Australia, raising concerns in both Beijing and Moscow.
India was close to the Soviet Union during the Cold War, a relationship that has endured, with New Delhi calling it a "special and privileged strategic partnership".
"The friendship between India and Russia has stood the test of time," Mr Modi told Mr Putin at a virtual summit in September.
It is Mr Putin's second trip abroad since the pandemic began - he skipped both the G-20 and COP26 summits this year - after a June summit with United States President Joe Biden in Geneva.
"It's hugely symbolic," said Mr Nandan Unnikrishnan from the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation think-tank. "There has been a lot of speculation about the nature of the India-Russia relationship and whether it is fraying because of Russia's closeness with China and India's with the US, but this visit puts all that to rest."
Mr Putin has to contend with complex regional dynamics, with tensions mounting between New Delhi and Beijing, following deadly clashes in a disputed Himalayan region.
"Russia's influence in the region is very limited, mostly because of its close ties with China and unwillingness to act in dissonance with the Chinese regional interests," said Dr Tatiana Belousova of O.P. Jindal Global University in Haryana, India.
The Kremlin said the talks will be dominated by defence and energy issues, with the chief of Russian energy giant Rosneft, Mr Igor Sechin, also attending as a "number of important energy agreements" were on the table.
Russia has long been a key arms supplier to India, which is looking to modernise its armed forces, and one of their most high-profile contracts is for the long-range S-400 ground-to-air missile defence system.
The deal, worth more than US$5 billion (S$6.8 billion), was signed in 2018 and deliveries have reportedly begun, but it threatens to upend the burgeoning relationship between New Delhi and Washington.
The US has threatened sanctions under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, which is aimed at reining in Russia.
"It is quite remarkable that India still decided to go ahead with the S-400 deal, despite the US disapproval," said Dr Belousova.
A similar purchase by Nato ally Turkey prompted the US to ban Ankara from its advanced F-35 fighter jet programme.
India needs Russia to keep up weapons supplies as it remains locked in its worst border stand-off with China.
