Russia Sanctions: India Defiant, Finland Nervous In the days following US and European Union sanctions against Russia, it was unclear what sort of economic impact they would have on nations that do defense deals with Moscow. But across Europe last week, the early returns began trickling in. And the assessments were mixed. In a major blow to the sanctions effort, however, India — the world’s largest consumer of Russian military equipment — rebuffed American efforts to join the sanctions program during US Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to New Delhi on Aug. 1. In Europe, the sanctions prohibiting the import or export of defense-related items with Russia, along with dual-use technologies used in the oil and gas exploration industries, are forecast to hit the Finnish economy particularly hard. In a statement to the Finnish Parliament on July 31, Prime Minister Alexander Stubb estimated that the drop in Finnish trade with a deteriorating Russian economy could erase up to 1 percent of the Finnish gross domestic product in 2014-2015. Russia is Finland’s biggest trading partner, after Germany. While it is highly unlikely that China will go along with the sanctions, India has rebuffed Kerry’s efforts to convince the new government in New Delhi to join the sanctions. “There is no change in our policy. We think that foreign policy is in continuity. Foreign policy does not change with the change in the government,” India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Aug. 1. Kerry replied that Washington “will obviously welcome India joining in with respect to [sanctions], but it’s India’s choice.” A source in the Indian Defence Ministry said India and Russia have, in fact, decided to increase their level of defense cooperation. The source said the talks on a fifth generation fighter aircraft, an Indo-Russian joint project, are being accelerated. The Indian Air Force expects to order more than 200 of the twin-engine aircraft, which is based on Sukhoi’s T-50 PAK FA, but the Indian government has long complained to Moscow about its low level of participation in the project. Also, a team from Russian defense giant Rosoboronexport was in New Delhi this month to discuss leasing two Amur-class submarines to the Indian Navy on a fast-track basis, the source added.
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 11:01:18 +0000