Many holes in Indian diplomacy came to the fore on Ukraine issue, country standing with China-Pakistan in Russia’s affair
China’s distance is driven as much by its proximity to Russia as by its open differences with the West, while Pakistan’s stance is guided by its excessive dependence on China. It seems that India lacks any coherent strategy regarding China. Faced with a challenge on two fronts, India realizes it has to fight its adversaries on its own but denies any military asymmetry with China.
Still, New Delhi, worried about the activities on its borders, ordered $ 3.4 billion worth of weapons from the US in 2021, up from $ 6.2 million in 2019. It sought speedy delivery of critical weapons already on order from the US, Russia and Israel.
Meanwhile, the US showcased its most advanced fighter jets, Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet and Rockwell B-1B Lancer for the first time in India at the Aero India Show in Bengaluru. Demonstrating with the supersonic conventional bomber not only presented a high profile, but also sought to push Russia, India’s biggest arms supplier since the ‘Soviet Union era’, into the twilight. It was also not a coincidence that this time for the first time in the 27-year history of this defense exhibition, the American delegation appeared to be the largest while Russia’s presence was nominal. Not only this, state-owned arms exporter Rosoboronexport also had a joint stall with United Aircraft and Almaz-Antey.
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