TASS news agency reported late on Tuesday that Moscow and New Delhi are in talks over boosting supplies of Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile systems to India, according to a senior Russian defence export official.
“India already has our S-400 system,” TASS quoted Dmitry Shugayev, head of Russia’s Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, as saying.
“There is potential to expand our cooperation in this area as well. That means new deliveries. For now, we are in the negotiation stage.”
India signed a $5.5 billion deal with Russia in 2018 for five S-400 Triumf long-range surface-to-air missile systems, which New Delhi says it needs to counter a threat from China.
But deliveries of the systems have been delayed several times. Moscow is expected to deliver units of the final two S-400 systems to India in 2026 and 2027.
India’s Narendra Modi told Vladimir Putin on Monday that India and Russia stood side by side even in difficult times after the Kremlin leader called the Indian prime minister his “dear friend” on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting in China.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in remarks published on Wednesday that India did not bow to the demands by the United States to stop purchasing resources from Russia and that Moscow “appreciated” that.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Russia accounted for 36% of India’s arms imports between 2020-2024, with France providing 33% and Israel 13%.