India-Russia joint venture: BrahMos embarks on silver jubilee celebrations

The India-Russia defence joint venture, BrahMos Aerospace, has embarked on a glorious milestone as it completes 25 years since its formation in 1998.

Coinciding with India’s 75 years of Independence, BrahMos Aerospace has commenced the ‘Silver Jubilee Year’ celebrations, for 2022–2023, to mark the incredible journey of one of India’s most successful, cutting-edge military partnership programmes that has produced the world’s best, fastest, and most powerful modern precision strike weapon, BrahMos. Starting on June 12, to mark 21 years of the maiden supersonic launch of unbeatable BrahMos, the ‘Silver Jubilee Year’ celebrations would culminate on February 12, 2023, on the ‘BrahMos Raising Day’.

“BrahMos is capable of making hypersonic missiles. In 5 to 6 years, we’ll be able to have the 1st hypersonic missile by BrahMos, “Atul Rane, CEO and MD, BrahMos Aerospace, said during the event. In the field of defence, India has longstanding and wide-ranging cooperation with Russia. India-Russia military-technical cooperation has evolved from a buyer-seller framework to one involving joint research, development, and production of advanced defence technologies and systems. The BrahMos Missile System as well as the licenced production in India of SU-30 aircraft and T-90 tanks is examples of such flagship cooperation.

The defence cooperation between India and Russia is historically deep and built on trust. In 2021-22, there was a sustained momentum in India’s traditionally close ties with Russia and other countries in the Eurasian region despite the negative impacts of the pandemic.

The special role of Russia in India’s foreign policy was highlighted by the successful visit of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, to India for the 21st India-Russia Annual Summit and the holding of the first India-Russia 2+2 Dialogue of Foreign and Defence Ministers, as well as the 20th meeting of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation in New Delhi on December 6, 2021. During the year, there were regular high-level exchanges between India and Russia at the ministerial and senior official levels, including several virtual meetings.

Russians and Indians both value and share values like friendship and loyalty, and this is something that unites the people of the two countries, especially the members of their permanent bureaucracies, in ways that outside observers rarely ever realise.

The particularly privileged strategic partnership between the two countries has become stronger and more diversified over time.