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India set to get 2 Russian n-submarines
By Sandeep Dikshit
NEW DELHI, FEB. 2. The coming visit of the Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Ilya Klebanov, is likely to see the finalisation of an agreement to lease two Russian nuclear submarines, according to Government sources here.
The submarines would help India counterbalance the growing Chinese influence in the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal and also give teeth to the Indian Navy in the Arabian Sea. The submarines could partly answer India's search for a ``second strike'' nuclear capability.
If the deal goes through as planned, the submarines may arrive at the Indian ports by 2004 when the design for an indigenous nuclear-powered submarine, the Advance Technology Vessel (ATV), is also expected to be finalised.
Russia already has 14 such silent multi-role submarines and the funds from this deal are expected to finance its ongoing work on the fourth generation submarines codenamed Project 885.
Sources said the deal did not violate any nuclear or missile control regimes. However, in deference to the Missile Technology Control Regime, Russia is likely to replace the submarines' 3,000-km-range cruise missiles with shorter version 300-km-range missiles.
Although the observations by the Defence Minister, George Fernandes, and reports from Russia had suggested that the aircraft-carrier Admiral Gorshkov could be the first major Indo- Russian deal for naval assets, sources indicated that the agreement for leasing nuclear submarines appeared closer to realisation.
Mr. Klebanov is arriving on Tuesday for scheduled meetings of the Indo-Russian joint working group on military and technical (JWG-MT) cooperation. A non-military component of his transaction will be his interface with the Finance Minister, Yashwant Sinha.
His visit is likely to see the signing of a protocol on military hardware in which an indicative list of items sought by India will be presented.
This protocol will be preceded by meetings of the two sub-groups on JWG-MT headed on the Indian side by the Defence Secretary, Yogendra Narain, and the Additional Secretary (Defence Production and Supplies), Dhirendra Singh.
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