Editorial: The Geopolitical Logic of Russia Lifting its Arms Embargo on Pakistan

Russian Air Force Mi-35М (Wiki Info - Image: Wiki Commons)

By Ankit Panda

The Kremlin made a major change in its South Asia policy — was it a sensible one?

As The Diplomat reported on Tuesday, Russia has decided to lift its long-standing, self-imposed embargo on weapons deliveries to Pakistan in an unexpected move. Sergei Chemezov, the head of Russia’s state-owned defense technology corporation Rostec, announced the decision. Chemezov further confirmed that Russia and Pakistan are bilaterally negotiating the sale of Mi-35 Hind attack helicopters.

The move is a surprising paradigm shift in Russian policy. The obvious question most commentators have already raised is the prospect of this decision upsetting India. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), India, the world’s largest defense equipment importer by a long shot, relied on Russia for over 75 percent of all of its imported weaponry in the 2009-13 period. With that sort of dependence on Russian weaponry, even if India were to be antagonized by Russia reversing its embargo on Pakistan, there is likely little New Delhi could do to exert leverage on Moscow to prevent this deal. Despite the reasons for India to be apprehensive about this development in Russia-Pakistan relations, it is likely that Moscow at least consulted New Delhi about the prospect of eventually selling arms to Pakistan. Even if this wasn’t the case, consultations between Pakistan and Russia have been taking place for some time now as relations between those two countries have slowly grown warmer. 

Read the full story at The Diplomat