PM Modi critiques India’s safety preparedness in assembly with high ministers, discusses Ukraine scenario

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The assembly was attended by Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The officers who have been a part of the assembly included National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba, PM’s Principal Secretary PK Mishra, Defense Secretary Ajay Kumar and Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla.

#WATCH Prime Minister Narendra Modi chairs a high-level assembly to evaluate India’s safety preparedness and the prevailing world state of affairs within the context of the continuing battle in Ukraine pic.twitter.com/fgKK6Tc7eP

— ANI (@ANI) March 13, 2022

Sources mentioned that the “high-level meeting” was known as by the Prime Minister “to review India’s security preparedness, and the prevailing global scenario in the context of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine”.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, New Delhi’s major concern had been to evacuate the 20,000-odd Indian nationals caught in numerous cities, a lot of whom discovered their approach to the borders to enter the neighboring nations. Most of the Indian nationals have been medical college students.

However, one other concern throughout the institution is provide of weapons as most of what India imports are of Russian origin. Every week in the past, Defense Minister Singh had met three service chiefs to take inventory of the scenario, vis–vis, pending Russian weapons imports, supply and reserves of spares, and the upkeep of those.

While officers throughout the protection institution have assured that the armed forces have spares for greater than six months as shares have been renewed owing to the continuing standoff with China in japanese Ladakh since May 2020. With a number of nations throughout the world having imposed sanctions on Russia, it would get tough for India to make sure a gentle provide of the spares.

From fighter jets, tanks and submarines, to air protection techniques, frigates and rifles, greater than 60 per cent of the weapons obtainable with Indian Armed Forces are of Russian origin. Many of those weapons even have Ukrainian parts, together with missiles and fuel generators for warships.

India has already signed agreements value over $12 billion with Russia for some important weapons to be delivered within the coming years. In the brief time period, each Indian and Russian sides have assured that the supply of the 4 of the 5 S400 Triumf air protection items that the nation had purchased in 2018 will proceed as per schedule. There could possibly be some delay, however that, too, is unlikely.

Apart from that, India is ready for the supply of two Talwar-class frigates from Russia, for which Ukraine had provided the fuel generators. Ukraine was additionally supposed to provide fuel generators for 2 extra such frigates, which will probably be in-built India although.

India can be getting two nuclear ballistic submarines on lease from Russia, Chakra 3 and Chakra 4, the primary of which is predicted to reach in 2025.

All these initiatives could possibly be jeopardised underneath the specter of sanctions. While the United States had been lenient with India in imposing sanctions underneath their 2017 regulation Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), however within the modified world scenario, there are considerations that the US will not be as tolerant as India continues to purchase refined weapons from Russia.

While India has been making an attempt to increase its base of shopping for weapons, Russia has been for many years exporter India’s largest protection, and India has purchased weapons value almost US$ 35 billion within the final 20 years from it.

While most individuals within the Indian protection institution don’t doubt Russia’s capability to ship the weapons or present spares, how one can pay for them, circumventing the worldwide sanctions, will probably be difficult. As the West tries to isolate Russia, reducing it off from the worldwide SWIFT system, and most western banks shutting down their Russian operations, the Reserve Bank of India has requested Indian banks to discover different avenues.

However, officers throughout the protection institution preserve that it’s too early to take a name on what sorts of points Indian forces would possibly face in the long term due to the battle and the sanctions. But the scenario has as soon as once more put India’s reliance on Russia for weapons underneath the highlight.