India Will Acquire S-400 Missile Defence System : nonsense from any other country notwithstanding
Dated : 17 Dec 2020 (IST)
India is all set to acquire the S-400 missile defence system, the US tantrums to impose sanctions on NATO ally Turkey’s defence industry over the purchase of the Russian system is being simply ignored and rightly so.
India is a Sovereign country and maintains its own independent foreign policy, the US decision won’t affect the Indian deal in anyway. US laws will not be granted any “Visa “ to enter India ! Last week, the external affairs ministry had emphasised that it pursued independent foreign policy based on national interest and this needs to be understood clearly by all those who wish to maintain friendship and cooperation with us.
“Our relations with Russia stand on their own merits, including in the sphere of military-technical cooperation,” MEA spokesperson said. Diplomatic sources indicated that India is different from Turkey and US will cannot be imposed on it.
Turkey went ahead with the purchase of S-400 system despite being a NATO member. The MEA had earlier made it clear that India had no plans to scrap its S-400 deal with Russia despite the US whimpering. The Ministry of Defence had also expressed similar views.
The Indian government has been quite displeased with repeated US attempts to dissuade it from purchasing the S-400 system. Moreover, India has often taken a strong stand against the use of sanctions as a political tool by one country against the other.
In fact, after the June 15 clash with the Chinese PLA on LAC in eastern Ladakh, which resulted in death of about 20 Indian military personnel (PLA too lost over 40), India had requested Russia to expedite S-400 supply. Moscow assured that some systems would reach much before the deadline of 2021-end.
