by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, News, Politics
By Arul Louis,
New York : US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said that India’s planned purchase of a Russian missile system or its relations with Iran will not be “the primary focus” of the “incredibly important” 2+2 Strategic Dialogue meeting he and Defence Secretary Jim Mattis will be having with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Seetharaman this week.
Calling India a “true strategic partner,” he said on Tuesday the meeting in New Delhi is “really about things that are big and strategic and will go on for 20, 40, 50 years” and “those are the kinds of topics that Secretary Mattis and I are hoping to address”.
“We have a true strategic partner who, frankly, is our only major defence partner… with whom we have a great relationship and who is very important to our success in our Indo-Pacific strategy — enormous country with incredibly opportunity and capacity for wealth creation,” he told reporters travelling with him to India according to a transcript provided by the State Department.
“We hope we can find opportunities to continue to expand the relationship not only diplomatic and military-to-military but a good set of business relationships as well,” he added.
“There’s half a dozen things on the agenda that we’re really intent on making progress on,” he said.
The 2+2 Strategic Dialogue was postponed twice at the request of the US — first in April when the leadership of the State Department was transitioning from Rex Tillerson to Pompeo.
“I regret it was my fault the second time” in July, he said. “I had to travel to Pyongyang.” Trump had suddenly set up a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trump had decided on the Strategic Dialogue when they met in Washington in 2017.
Trump administration’s strategic vision embodies India and the US as “the two bookends of stability” in the Asia Pacific region — and a counterbalance to China’s rising power.
Symbolically, the US now calls the region Indo-Pacific and even renamed its Pacific military command.
At this week’s meeting, Iran and the Russian missile defence system purchase “will certainly come up, but I don’t think they will be the primary focus of what it is we are trying to accomplish here,” Pompeo said.
“Those decisions are important to the relationship for sure, but I don’t see us resolving those during this set of meetings of the Strategic Dialogue,” he added.
India is planning to buy five advanced S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems from Russia in a deal estimated to cost about Rs 40,000 crore.
India reportedly also plans to continue buying oil from Iran despite threat of sanctions by Trump, who reneged on the agreement between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany to stop Tehran’s nuclear programme.
(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and can be followed on Twitter at @arulouis)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance
By Anjali Ojha,
New Delhi : A contract for Mi-17V-5 helicopters, which was supposed to be signed last year, is now expected to be finalised soon, a top Russian official has said.
“Negotiations with the Indian side on the delivery of 48 Mi-17V-5 helicopters have been completed; we expect to sign the corresponding contract in the first quarter of 2018,” CEO of Russia’s Rostec State Corporation, Sergey Chemezov, told IANS in an interview.
He also said that there is “serious modernisation potential” in the Mi-17 and Mi-8 choppers which was proven by the development of the Mi-171A2 helicopter.
The Mi-171A2 is an advanced medium multirole helicopter, based on the Mi-8/17 series with more powerful propulsion systems, upgraded main rotor, gear systems and fuselage and advanced avionics.
Chemezov said the chopper has seen more than 80 new improvements in the platform.
India at present has around 151 Mi-17V-5 helicopters, the last of which were delivered in January 2016.
The Mi-17V-5 is based on the Mi 8 helicopter airframe and is one of the most advanced aircraft of the Mi-8/17 helicopter family.
The helicopters are equipped with night vision technology, on-board weather radar, a new PKV-8 autopilot system, and a KNEI-8 avionics suite.
The sturdy choppers have been the Indian Air Force’s mainstay in a number of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations.
The chopper was also used during the Mumbai terror attack of November 2008, where it aided in the commando assault to take back Chabad House. It is also said to have been used in the surgical strike carried out on Pakistani terror launch pads across the Line of Control in September 2016.
It has TV3-117BM turboshaft engines, rated at 1900 hp each, giving the chopper greater service and hovering ceiling, and have proved efficient in the tough mountain terrain of the Himalayas.
Asked about a recent tender for 111 Naval Utility Helicopters that India came out with, Chemezov said Russia will be participating in the tender with its Kamov Ka-226T helicopter.
Chemezov said Ka-226T met all specifications of the tender, and a solution for Naval use of the helicopter had also been found.
“Our helicopter meets all the requirements presented in the tender documentation, and its technical characteristics exceed our competitors. We already have a solution for the naval version of this helicopter with folding blades,” he said.
“If the Ministry of Defence of India selects the Ka-226T, India can save money significantly. Thanks to the project for joint production of helicopters, there are opportunities for joint maintenance, training of pilots and mechanics and other related costs,” he said.
He added that there will also be a scope to export the helicopters once India’s requirements are met.
In anticipation of the contract, the two countries have formed a joint venture for 200 Ka-226T helicopters, 40-60 of which are likely to be imported off-the-shelf from Russia, with the rest being assembled in India.
At the Russian-Indian summit in Moscow in December 2015, an intergovernmental agreement was signed for implementation of the project for production of Ka-226T helicopters in India.
In October 2016, at the Russian-Indian summit in Goa, the parties signed a Partner Agreement and ratified the Memorandum and Articles of Association of the new Joint Venture, which was announced at the BRICS summit.
The Russian side has 49.5 per cent share, while India has 50.5 per cent stake in the Joint Venture which got Russian President Vladimir Putin’s nod in April and was registered in India in May this year.
(Anjali Ojha can be contacted at anjali.o@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, News, Politics
T. Suvarna Raju
New Delhi : Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) Chairman T. Suvarna Raju backed the India-Russia Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft programme on Monday, saying it will bring home niche technology, even as the programme appears to be stuck over its high price.
Asked about the project, Raju said it was a “dream” for him and he expects to see it through.
Asked about the project, Raju said: “We are still hopeful, that is what we will say. It’s an opportunity as an industry and as a country.”
The HAL CMD said it was an opportunity for India as a country, and for the industry as well.
“This is an opportunity for us to go in for this kind of technology which no one else in the world is offering us… Let’s see how it unfolds,” he said.
He was speaking at the sidelines of an event to handover the 50th AL31FP engine, manufactured by HAL Koraput from raw material phase to Indian Air Force. The papers of the engine were handed over to Vice Chief of Indian Air Force Air Marshal S.B. SEO.
Asked if not going for the FGFA project may have political repercussions on India-Russia relationships, he said: “I will not be able to comment on political repercussion… But technology wise we have done the preliminary design already. It’s just one step more to move on to.”
To a question on what may have led to the IAF not being enthusiastic about the project, he said: “They would have their own priorities.”
“Fifth generation is an opportunity for India to learn the technologies and I would definitely see this will be the first project, the way the contract has been written, it has lots of benefits and it will definitely have a very positive impact,” he said.
The long delayed programme for a Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft that India and Russia were to develop together appears to be stuck, primarily over prices, as India feels it is very expensive.
A committee was constituted by the Defence Ministry to look into the details of the programme between India and Russia, which has been in the pipeline since 2007.
The committee recently submitted a report on the programme to the Ministry.
However, as per the report, the cost of developing four prototype fighter jets would cost around $6 billion, which is very high according to officials in the Defence Ministry.
India and Russia had inked an inter-governmental pact for the FGFA project in 2007. It was to be based on the Russian Sukhoi-57 or the PAK FA T-50 fighter jet.
India has earlier also expressed to the Russia side that the project’s cost was too high, and had also discussed buying the Su-57 fighters.
In December 2010, India had agreed to pay $295 million towards the preliminary design of the fighter, also referred to as ‘Perspective Multi-role Fighter’ (PMF).
However, negotiations faced various hurdles in the subsequent years.
There were several disagreements between New Delhi and Moscow, including on work and cost share, aircraft technology, as well as the number of aircraft to be ordered.
After evaluating the first PAK FA T-50 prototype (the Russian prototype of the PMF), the Indian Air Force (IAF) wanted more than 40 changes – addressing, among other things, perceived weaknesses in the plane’s engine, stealth, and weapon-carrying capability.
—IANS
