Noted & Quoted: RIA Novosti on India’s Arms Market

From RIA Novosti’s op-ed feature “India’s Arms Market: Everyone In, Nobody Out” :

“The Indian arms market is an extraordinary place even by the standards of the markets of the Gulf oil monarchies, which buy weapons indiscriminately, provided the batch is big and the price is high. But India, although it also buys many weapons, does so only after serious consideration and for far-reaching reasons. This is why arms talks with India are like a complex dance with a large number of partners, not unlike a Bollywood movie…

Unlike Chinese reverse-engineering efforts, India honors [intellectual property]… However, India also burdens arms acquisition contracts with so many requirements for localized components production, technology transfer and reinvestment of revenues in the Indian economy that any other client with such exacting tastes would have long been shown the door… But the Indian market is so large and attractive that global arms corporations are fighting for a place on it.”