MOSCOW - Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov on Sunday said that Moscow will deliver S-400 air defence missile systems to India within 18-19 months.
"The advance payment has been received and everything will be delivered in strict accordance with the schedule, within about 18-19 months," Borisov was quoted as saying by ANI.
It is to be noted that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar visited Moscow in August to meet his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov and hold discussions over ways to further advance bilateral cooperation.
India had signed a USD 5.43-billion deal with Russia during the 19th India-Russia Annual Bilateral Summit in New Delhi on October 5, 2019 for the purchase of five S-400 systems.
In July, 2019, a top US Navy commander had said that India acquiring the S-400 missile system from Russia is a "bit of a problem". "We're still in dialogue with them about that S-400. India is acquiring the S-400. It's a Russian air defence system. That's a bit of a problem.
Will you continue to dialogue? I, I think they intend to do that. I'm trying to clarify for them that the tactical and technical case that's so important here," US Indo-Pacific Command chief Admiral Philip Scot Davidson had said at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado.