Russia, India defence mins to hold key talks tomorrow

Wed, 03 December 2025

18:04

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his Russian counterpart Andrey Belousov./Courtesy X@rajnathsingh/ANI Photo

India's keenness in procurement of S-400 missile systems, upgrade of Sukhoi 30 fighter jets and purchasing other critical military hardware from Russia will be on the agenda for talks between Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his Russian counterpart Andrey Belousov on Thursday.

Top military officials said the overall focus will be to further expand the already close defence and security ties between the two countries, with a particular focus on ensuring expeditious supply of military hardware from Russia to India.

Belousov will be part of Russian President Vladimir Putin's delegation to India.

The talks between the two defence ministers will take place a day ahead of the summit meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Putin.

In the meeting with Belousov, the Indian side is likely to push for the supply of military hardware within the prescribed time limit.

It has been a long-standing grievance of armed forces that the supply of critical spares and equipment from Russia takes a long time, affecting the maintenance of military systems procured from that country.

It is learnt that India is looking at procuring additional batches of S-400 surface-to-air missile systems from Russia as the weapons proved to be very effective during Operation Sindoor.

The issue may figure in the defence dialogue, one of the officials said. -- PTI

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