US to undermine S-400 deal under CAATSA as India and Russia expand Defense ties | Putin visits Indi

Russian president tells the story what happened during his visit to India and meeting with Indian PM Modi. Russian FM Sergey Lavrov says, India will decide what to buy. India’s purchase of an air defense system signaled that it was more worried about an emboldened China at its borders than about angering the United States. India and Russia announced expanding defense ties on Monday during a visit by President Vladimir Putin to New Delhi, including the details of a $5.4 billion missile defense system sale to India, despite a risk of sanctions from the United States. “Supplies have begun this month and will continue to happen,” India’s foreign secretary, Harsh Vardhan Shringla, told reporters about the missile defense system after the meeting between Mr. Putin and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “It is important to note that whether it is us or Russia, we conduct an independent foreign policy.” The confirmation that the air defense system deal, first agreed upon in 2018, was going ahead despite threats that it could affect India’s growing relations with the United States signaled that New Delhi was willing to take calculated risks to bolster its defenses against an emboldened China at its borders. India and China have failed to resolve tensions since deadly skirmishes between the two countries’ troops along their shared border last year, and their militaries remain on a border footing in the Himalayas going into a second harsh winter. India may have concluded that the...