Amid sanctions risk, Adani Defence & Bharat Forge join rare Moscow talks on joint defence ventures: Sources

New Delhi: At least half a dozen executives from top Indian arms makers, including Adani Defence and Bharat Forge, attended rare meetings in Russia this year to discuss potential joint ventures, three people familiar with the matter said.

The meetings took place during the first visit of India's defence business leaders to Russia since Moscow's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The visit by the defence business leaders had not previously been reported. The Indian government is seeking to re-orient its decades-old defence ties with Russia to focus on joint development of weapons.

Any potential collaboration with Russia risks setting back plans by Indian defence firms to jointly develop Western arms as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's push to make India, one of the world's biggest arms importers, a global manufacturing hub.

Western diplomats have previously said that a key obstacle to the transfer of sensitive military technology to India is its defence ties with Russia and the vast amount of Russian-origin arms used by the Indian military, totalling about 36%.

The talks in Moscow were held on the sidelines of a visit by an Indian defence-industrial delegation on October 29-30, headed by India's Defence Production Secretary Sanjeev Kumar, that was aimed at laying the ground for Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to India on December 4-5.

A spokesperson for Adani Group denied that executives from any of its firms attended the meetings. India's defence ministry and the other firms cited by the sources did not respond to requests for comment.

Joint production in India

The meetings discussed the potential for manufacturing of spares for Mikoyan MiG-29 fighter jet, and other Russian-origin air defence and weapon systems, as well as a Russian proposal to set up production units in India for development of equipment that could potentially also be exported to Moscow, said two of the sources and another industry executive.

They spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the matter.

Russia has been India's top arms supplier for decades, and during Putin's visit the two sides said they had agreed to reorient their partnership "to joint research and development, co-development and co-production of advanced defence technology and systems" to support India's self-reliance in defence.

Indian executives in Moscow

A broad delegation of representatives from defence units of Indian conglomerates, state-owned firms, as well as startups involved in the development of drones and artificial intelligence for military use attended the meetings, the sources said.

An executive at engineering conglomerate Kalyani Group's Bharat Forge, which makes components for missiles and artillery guns, attended the meetings as part of efforts to source or jointly develop components for Russian-origin tanks and aircraft as well as to explore potential future collaboration on helicopters, two of the sources said.

Adani Defence and Aerospace, a unit of billionaire Gautam Adani's apples-to-airports conglomerate Adani Group, was represented by its Chief Executive Ashish Rajvanshi, the sources said.

Also attending was an executive from the Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers advisory group that lists more than 500 arms and military equipment makers as its members, including the defence arms of conglomerates Tata Sons, Larsen & Toubro, and state-owned firms such as Bharat Electronics.

Sanctions risk

Reuters reported in 2024 that a Bharat Forge subsidiary was among the three Indian firms that exported artillery shells to Europe, some of which were later diverted to Ukraine, resulting in a diplomatic protest from Moscow.

Indian firms, however, would be hesitant about striking new deals with Russia due to the risk of secondary sanctions, an Indian executive said.

While India can use diplomatic outreach and lobbying to offer some protection from sanctions, an Indian defence official said the firms would have to factor in the political risks themselves.