NEW DELHI – Indian media has reported that Russia is ditching India forPakistan as the news of Pakistani soldiers and officers training at Russianmilitary training institutes reached India as a shock.
Indian media has reported that this is yet another indication of thedeepening defence ties between the two countries who till a few years agowere in the opposing camp of world politics. The two countries on Tuesdaysigned the Contract on Admission of Service Members of Pakistan in RF’s(Russian Federation) Training Institutes, paving the way for Pakistanitroops to undergo training in Russia, a country which has been India’sbiggest ally and suppliers of weapons and defence equipment.
According to Pakistani news website Dawn.com, the agreement was signedafter the first Russia-Pakistan Joint Military Consultative Committee(JMCC) meeting in Rawalpindi on Tuesday. While the Russian delegation wasled by Russian Deputy Defence Minister Colonel General Alexander Fomin, thePakistani side was headed by Defence Secretary Lieutenant General (retired)Zamirul Hassan Shah. Gen Fomin also visited the General Headquarters andmet General Qamar Javed Bajwa, the chief of the powerful Pakistani Army.
Both the countries had signed a defence cooperation pact in November 2014and in October 2015 inked the military-technical cooperation accord underwhich the two countries would cooperate in developing weapons and Russiamay also supply arms to Pakistan.
Pakistan has already received four Mi-35M combat and cargo helicopters fromRussia since then while the soldiers of the two countries have also held amilitary exercise ‘Friendship’.
The Contract on Admission of Service Members of Pakistan in RF’s (RussianFederation) Training Institutes comes just days after a Russian defenceand strategic think tank gave a call to sell the Su-35 fighter jet toPakistan and not worry about India as it had pulled out of the programme tojointly develop the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA).
“We do not want to offend the Indians, but I believe that against thebackdrop of India’s hesitation about the project of the fifth generationfighter, Russia should promote the Su-35 fighter jet in Pakistan.Otherwise, Chinese, South Korean or even Turkish companies will take thismarket in about five years,” Russian Center for Analysis of Strategies andTechnologies Deputy Director Konstantin Makienko told Pravda.
Makienko had added that Russia should discard the self-restraint of notselling state-of-art weapons to Pakistan as India had “removed all moralobligations from Russia with its behaviour”. The Sukhoi Su-35 Flanker-Eair-superiority fighter is the most advanced fourth generation jet inservice with the Russian military.