India has a substantial inventory of Soviet and Russian-origin weapons because the Western countries opted a military dictatorship in the region as its preferred partner and did not supply weapons to New Delhi for decades, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said on October 10, in an apparent reference to Pakistan.
During a joint press meet with his Australian counterpart Penny Wong in Canberra, Mr. Jaishankar also said that India and Russia have a long-standing relationship that has certainly served New Delhi’s interests well.
“We have a substantial inventory of Soviet and Russian-origin weapons. And that inventory actually grew for a variety of reasons. You know, the merits of the weapons systems themselves, but also because for multiple decades, Western countries did not supply weapons to India, and in fact, saw a military dictatorship next to us as the preferred partner,” Mr. Jaishankar said, in an apparent reference to Pakistan, which was a close ally of the U.S.-led West during the Cold War.
