MOSCOW and NEW DELHI — Russia and India have agreed to cooperate on a new fifth-generation fighter jet, which would be the largest joint military effort between India and its largest arms supplier.
But other programs have stalled in the face of Moscow’s request for up to 10 percent more money for several pending and completed Indian defense programs.
The news emerged from talks between Indian Defence Minister A. K. Anthony and Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov during their Oct. 17-19 meeting in Moscow.
The fighter deal, talks of which dragged for more than two years, was reached a week after the two countries reportedly signed a $1.5 billion contract to allow India to build 40 Su-30MKI fighter jets under license, an addendum to the 2000 purchase of 140 Russian-built jets. The contract was reported Oct. 12 by Russia’s state-controlled Rossia television channel and confirmed by an industry source.
Officials with Rosoboronexport, Russia’s arms-export agency, declined to comment.
Russia and India will split the cost and intellectual effort of designing the new fighter, which will be both countries’ biggest joint military program, the Russian Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation said in an Oct. 18 statement.
Officials declined to release more details about the deal, signed by Vyacheslav Dzirkaln, the Russian service’s deputy director, and K.P. Singh, India’s deputy defense minister for defense production.
The governments also agreed to jointly build airframe elements for Su-30MKI fighters to be built in Russia. The service statement said the work would bring together the technological bases of the Russian and Indian aviation industries.
Earlier Indo-Russia joint efforts include the supersonic BrahMos naval missile.
“India is a politically good choice for Russia to jointly develop arms: There are no geopolitical and economic spheres where the two countries would be rivals,” said Maxim Pyadushkin, aviation expert with the Russia/CIS Observer magazine.
Moscow has sold India weapons that it would not sell even to Warsaw Bloc nations, largely in an attempt to prevent India from turning to the West, said Ruslan Pukhov, an analyst at the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, a think tank here.
Russia has enough money and intellectual power to develop its fifth-generation fighter alone, but the India alliance opens New Delhi’s voracious market for fighters, also allowing it to produce more and thus reduce costs per unit. It may also bring superior Indian avionics technology to Russia, a rarity in a country that prefers to build all defense equipment and arms at home.
For India, the cooperation means keeping its qualitative advantage over Pakistan and China, Pukhov said. “Western military sales to India would not ever allow New Delhi to achieve such a strategic effect” as the edge over China, he said.
India and China combined buy about one-third of the country’s arms exports.
Demand for More Money
But Russian demands for more money may yet cause Indo-Russian cooperation to founder. The $2 billion demand covers nearly $10.5 billion in existing contracts and about as much in pending ones, Indian defense ministry sources said.
Russian officials say inflation and economic factors require the extra cash; Indian Defence Ministry officials have offered up to 4 percent as compensation.
Indian Defence Ministry sources said India has also paid up to double the agreed price for spare parts.
They also said Anthony has told Russian counterpart Eduardovich Serdyukov that Moscow must guarantee life-cycle costs.
Affected purchases include T-90 tanks, Sukhoi aircraft, and Igla-S and Tunguska air defense missiles.
“Russia is arm-twisting India as we are already committed to these projects and cannot now back out. This has not gone down well with opinion makers in India,” said Gurmeet Kanwal, a director at the Centre for Land Warfare Studies. “In view of this harsh experience, India must reconsider its reliance on Russian weaponry and must diversify its sources of supply even more than it has done so already.”
In private, Defence Ministry officials said Moscow may also be piqued by the pending U.S.-India nuclear cooperation agreement.
But defense analyst Rahul Bhonsle said Moscow began asking for price increases in May, and chalked it up to economic reasons.
Bhonsle also said India is re-evaluating its arms-export agreements.
“Russia is well aware that India is diversifying its arms procurements; hence it may not be in a position to coerce New Delhi to the desired extent,” he said. “Even China is facing a blow-hot, blow-cold policy by Moscow with some of its contractual commitments, such as the supply of Il-76 [aircraft], lying unfulfilled.”
India is dissatisfied with Russia for several other reasons.
Moscow has not signed the Integrity pact, which forbids foreign suppliers of arms to India to sell those specific weapons to other countries.
Nor have the two nations signed an intellectual-property rights agreement despite a 2005 memorandum of understanding. The pact is intended to stop technology transfer to third countries and ensure Russia receives expected royalties.

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$hit man we dont need this nonsense in our life ......... we need to spend money on people ......... not rubbish military technology .......... if they want buyers go to other asian countries leave india alone .............