New Delhi, India–India has held its nose and abstained five times since the February 24 invasion of Ukraine by Russia. While none of these abstentions has affected the outcome of the vote, they were driven by the South Asian country’s need to secure its supply of defence equipment, the majority of which it gets from Russia, experts say.
India’s reliance on Russian military and strategic equipment is “huge”, said retired Lieutenant General Deependra Singh Hooda, former commander of India’s northern army. “I mean, 60-70 percent of the equipment is Russian,” he said, listing air force fighters and air defence systems, army’s armour and the navy’s aircraft carrier and frigates. Notably, “who else will lease a nuclear submarine to you?” he asks.
