Posted on 04/03/2007 11:00:54 PM PDT by Srirangan
India's weapons purchases have hit a major roadblock with its biggest defence supplier, Russia, refusing to sign the mandatory integrity pact for defence contracts. Under the present defence procurement procedures, every defence contract worth more than Rs 100 crore must be accompanied by an integrity pact, an undertaking that no arms agents are involved and no commissions have been paid.
Authoritative sources in the Ministry of Defence told DNA that intense negotiations are underway between the Ministry of Defence and Russian representatives to ensure that the latter’s stand do not “delay” India’s defence modernisation and massive procurement programmes. The Russians have told the MOD that some clauses of the integrity pact “collide with” the domestic laws of the country. However, sources are refusing to confirm if the Russian reservations has got to do with the pact demanding an explicit commitment against payment of commissions and appointment of agents.
(Excerpt) Read more at militaryglobal.com ...
1 crore = 10 million
100 crores = 1 billion = 1000 million
100 crore INR = (1000/43) million US$ = 23 million US$
Nice of Russian to be so upfront about their business practice. By the way, does Integrity Pact also cover reprisal by Polonium poisoning if deals go south?
Israeli (especially), Ukrainian (who produce a lot what Russias do) and Western firms would be keenly looking at this situation and hoping it deteriorates further.
Actually a large part of the problems with Russian weaponry post the USSR has to do with the fact that there are a number of producers spread out in the CIS & Warsaw pact states,all offering many Russian products.So the Russians have always been cranky about guarding their piece of the pie irrespective of what the customer thinks.
About Western producers looking gleefully at this,I don’t know-they have many of the same reservations the Russians will have.
>> I don’t know-they have many of the same reservations the Russians will have. <<
Why should anybody have a problem with signing to the Integrity Pact? All it says is the firm pledges not to bribe officials using middlemen.
Most defense companies from Russia or it’s neighbours are not well known on their own. to present their case(s) to Indian officials & get a suitable deal within shortest period of time.That’s where the middle men come in.While I am against paying bribes,I really don’t know how you can throw out the Middle Man.Everyone uses them.
The only problem is that once the middle man comes in -the rest follow-a hefty cheque,holidays in Carribean & a few exotic girls!!
You are justifying bribery of our Indian officials by saying Russian and CIS companies do not have a ‘brand appeal’?
The middlemen/agents are corrupt retired officials, gee after 65 years of defence deals, I’m sure the Indian establishment is familiar with Russian defence suppliers.
Corruption is inexcusable. Perhaps the Russians need to bribe because they prolly know their product won’t stand a chance against Western/Israeli products in a fair field trial?
So because of this corruption, we as a nation get mediocre weapon systems dumped, putting our soliders at risk on the frontlines.
India should use this as an opprutunity to ditch Russian weapons exports and go towards the NATO standard. BTW, China has the same technology and buys much more Russian weaponry, so why would India want it anyway???
My recommendation for India-Don’t touch any CIS member state’s weapons. Enter into agreements with Israel, Britian, and the US for weapons contracts and building agreements, and civilian contracts (To get the US to go to India instead of China/Russia for civil airline building, defense industries, ect)
Personally, I think an element of what you suggest has been thought about, in formulating these new procurement laws by India.
Umm,Im not justifying corruption,buddy-just giving you what the middlemen & their cronies are all about.
Now tell me,how do we go about cleaning up this mess??Stop buying from the Russians & all of their neighbours.Fair enough,only problem is that it makes our mediocre weapon systems even more mediocre & that’s over 70% of our military.I support delinking from the Russians-but only in a gradual manner.Frankly it’s happening too.
The problem here is most people,including you & me,don’t know how defense procurements happen in India.Why is there so limited parliamentary oversight on this issue??Why is it that everyone from the politicians to the media bark about improperly framed contract tenders only when the contract is signed.A case in example is the Scorpene submarine deal.Only one submarine was considered from the start while 2 rival designs(German & Swedish) were ignored.
IOW,open up the tendering & procurement process & the middleman will learn to behave.But who would want that to happen??
The people who run the defense establishment are often an assortment of shady twits.The only thing they are familiar with is money & sleaze.
India would be a very powerful ally in countering China and a possible terrorist takeover/coup in Pakistan, and having interoperatibility between US and Indian forces would go a long way in helping to do this. Also, by allying with the US, India can assure itself a steady supply of oil from Saudi Arabia and Iraq, and deny China this privilage.
I agree with that.But the only interoperability that will exist between India & the US for atleast the next 15 years will be limited to joint training & secure communication links.
Opinion: not worth much. Socialist India is still a touch anti- American. They would rather deal with socialist Russia than America, just to show us we are the war mongering imperlist. How many Socialist immergrants does Russia take in every year? Bet all of the Indians in the Uncle Sap vote rat. The USA is just a cash cow to be milked and the milk sent back to india.
And this is where the Integrity Pact comes is. Don’t just blame our desi babus, the foreign firms using Agents to pay out officials are just as much at fault than them babus.
Integrity Pact hopes to clear some of the mess, and the Russian stand is poor. Remember, back when they wanted us to sign the IPR, we did as it was the right thing to do. When was the last ttime the Russians forced the Chinese to stop developing and selling cheap copies of Russian arms?
Russia has to clean up its act or else face an exit. India bought more arms than China in 2005 and 2006. And unlike China, the US, Israel and Europe can sell to us. We have options so the Russians can take their games somewhere else.
It is not the 70’s anymore. India and the U.S. can offer each other a lot. But 70’s era mindset on both sides can harm the potential for co-operation. A lot has changed between India and the U.S.; we are with you on Iran, we are with you on China, we are with you on Extremist Terror.
If you think the bilateral co-operation seen in recent years is one-way, then you are truly mistaken. “Socialist India” died with the 80’s decade. Move on.
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