MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin will oversee the signing of a $5 billion deal this week to supply Delhi with S-400 air defence systems, a top Kremlin aide said on Tuesday ahead of Putin’s trip to India.
“The president is leaving for India on October 4,” Putin’s top foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov told reporters. “The key feature of this visit will be the signing of the agreement to deliver S-400 air defence systems,” he said. “The value of the contract will be more than $5 billion.”
Moscow has been negotiating to sell the S-400 long-range surface-to-air missiles to India for months. India had earlier said that it will go ahead with the acquisition of the missiles from Russia despite pressure from the US. The deal has irked US, which wants to wean Delhi off Russian technology. A senior Pentagon official said in August that sanctions against India would come under consideration if its purchase goes through.
A recent US law called CAATSA (Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act) seeks to deter countries from buying Russian weapons. India has signalled it will ask Washington for a special waiver from sanctions, though a US official last week said there is no guarantee it would do so.
