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Russia offers several n-submarines to India

MOSCOW: Russia may lease out to India “several” nuclear-powered attack submarines, but has no such plans for China, said a top Russian arms export official. “There is a real possibility of leasing to India for 10 years several of our nuclear powered multi-role submarines of Project 971 of Shchuka-B class,” Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSVTS) director Mikhail Dmitriyev was quoted as saying on Monday.

“This possibility can materialise in the next few years,” he said, according to the ITAR-TASS news agency. Mr. Dmitriyev said the leased submarines would be of the same class as the Nerpa, which suffered an accident last month in the Sea of Japan in which 20 people died.

At the same time, he ruled out supplying nuclear submarines to China, because it “never asked for them.” A senior defence expert said Beijing was very keen to get nuclear submarines, but Russia was unwilling to supply them for security reasons.

“It is a question of trust, which exists between Russia and India, but is in deficit between Russia and China,” said Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies think-tank. “There is consensus among the Russian elites that China should not be given weapons that could be used against Russia,” he said.

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