RUSSIA SUPPLIES MORE T-90S TANKS TO INDIAN GROUND FORCES

MOSCOW, APRIL 5, 2004 (RIA Novosti correspondent) Olga Semyonova) - Rosoboronexport, the Russian government's main arms dealer, has fulfilled its obligations under a Feb. 2001 contract for the supply of 310 T-90S tanks to India's ground forces and for the licensing of the manufacture of such tanks at Indian facilities, a Rosoboronexport spokesperson said.

The source described the project as one of the most ambitious and successful in the history of Russo-Indian military technological cooperation. Along with Russia and India, it also involved companies from France (THALES) and Belarus (Peleng), which supplied state-of-the-art infrared image converters for the tanks.

The assembly of T-90S tanks under a license agreement with Russian designers and manufacturers was organized at a plant in Awadi, in the southern Indian state of Tamilnadu.

"Progress in the implementation of current contracts and the signing of new ones will promote further development of mutually beneficial relations between Russia and India, something that is perfectly in line with both countries' long-term national interests," our Rosoborobexport interviewee said.