The final round of talks for 310 Russian T-90 main battle tanks (MBTs) is under way in New Delhi to conclude what Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes said was a "small matter of price" in a deal worth over Rs30 billion ($674 million).
Official sources in India said the price negotiation committee (PNC) headed by Lt Gen Shamsher S Mehta, Deputy Chief of Army Staff Planning and Systems, will make a concerted bid to drive down prices from $2.12 million per tank to around $2 million.
Negotiations are for the purchase of 100 T-90s and another 210 in dismantled form for local assembly to initially arm six or seven armoured regiments.
The PNC will also finalise the transfer of technology to locally build the T-90 at the Heavy Vehicles Factory at Avadi, southern India. Officials said the deal will be finalised before Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Delhi in October and all 310 MBTs are likely to arrive in India by 2003 or 2004.
Negotiations for the T-90 were adjourned in mid-May following some 70 PNC meetings in which the two sides were unable to agree on the final price.
The Russians were reportedly demanding $120,000 more per MBT or over $37.2 million on the entire deal, an amount India refused to pay.
Fernandes' June visit to Moscow broke the deadlock and led to statements that the T-90 deal was imminent. "Both parties are inextricably tied to the T-90 deal," armoured officers said.
India is also finalising negotiations with Dassault Aviation for 10 upgraded Mirage 2000H air defence aircraft, and has opened discussions for the purchase of 18 Mirage 2000D strike aircraft to form part of the Indian Air Force's (IAF's) minimum nuclear deterrent (Jane's Defence Weekly 1 September 1999). French avionics and weapons systems are also to be integrated into the IAF's 40 Sukhoi Su-30 multirole fighters.
France is also expected to assist India in the construction of the 32,000-tonne air-defence ship (ADS), which was cleared for construction along with two indigenously-designed Project 75 conventionally-powered submarines under the Indian Navy's (IN's) 30-year submarine construction plan (JDW 9 June 1999).
Following the recent visit of an Indian military delegation to France, led by defence secretary T R Prasad, defence officials in New Delhi said that "the decks have been cleared to re-open the line to build additional medium-range attack submarines with French help".
Official sources said the IN had sought French involvement in developing its underwater launched missile capability because local programmes are still at a developmental stage.
The two Project 75 submarines to be built at Mazagon Dockyard, western India, are indigenously modified versions of the navy's four HDW Type 1500 diesel-electric submarines and will have tube-launched missile capability.
