Russia has remained the second largest arms exporting nation for the past 20 years, surpassed only by the United States. The Kremlin will continue to depend on those exports to help subsidize its domestic war machine, and India will likely aid those efforts.

New Delhi has not explicitly condemned Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, largely as it depends on Moscow for military hardware. In just the past five years, Russia supplied India with around $13 billion in arms, while the Indian military has also placed orders for additional weapons and military equipment exceeding $10 billion.

“Russia remains one of the key players on India’s weapons market. In particular, the total value of Russian defense exports to India exceeded $13 billion in the past five years,” Director of the Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation Dmitry Shugayev told state-media outlet Tass ahead of this week’s Aero India 2023 Air Show – the largest such aviation event in Europe.