Traditionally Russia is ranked among world's leading manufacturers of air defence weapons

LUCKNOW - Contracts are under negotiation to supply India with Russian-made Igla-S man-portable air defence missiles and to organise their production on Indian soil, an official representative of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation told reporters on Thursday.

"Currently, active contract negotiations are underway for the supply of Igla-S portable anti-aircraft missile systems and the organisation of their licensed production in India. We expect that in the near future the parties will agree on all technical parameters, and we expect to sign the relevant contracts by the end of this year," the unnamed military liaison said during the DefExpo-2020 arms exhibition in India’s Lucknow.

A day prior, another Russian military representative at the exhibition informed reporters of negotiations to produce Kalashnikov assault rifles in India under the "Make in India" initiative.

India is one of Russia’s main buyers of military equipment and has over the years supplied its armed forces with ranges of Russian-made planes, submarines and missile defence systems.