After China, India to get S-400 air missiles from Russia
India wants the long-range missile systems to tighten its air defense mechanism, particularly along the nearly 4,000-km-long Sino-India border.
New Delhi, October 5, 2018: India and Russia signed the $5 billion S-400 air defense system deal on Friday after wide-ranging talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin, official sources said.
The US has urged its allies to forgo transactions with Russia, warning that the S-400 missile defense system that India wanted to buy would be a “focus area” for it to implement punitive sanctions against a nation undertaking “significant” business deals with the Russians.
American lawmakers, however, have allowed the possibility of a presidential waiver.
India wants the long-range missile systems to tighten its air defense mechanism, particularly along the nearly 4,000-km-long Sino-India border.
S-400 is known as Russia’s most advanced long-range surface-to-air missile defense system. China was the first foreign buyer to seal a government-to-government deal with Russia in 2014 to procure the lethal missile system.
Moscow has already started delivery of an undisclosed number of the S-400 missile systems to Beijing.
