NEW DELHI: At least half a dozen executives from top Indian arms makers, including Adani Defence and Bharat Forge, attended rare meetings in Russia this year to discuss potential joint ventures, three people familiar with the matter said.

The meetings took place during the first visit of India’s defence business leaders to Russia since Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The visit by the defence business leaders had not previously been reported. The Indian government is seeking to reorient its decades-old defence ties with Russia to focus on joint development of weapons.

Any potential collaboration with Russia risks setting back plans by Indian defence firms to jointly develop Western arms as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s push to make India, one of the world’s biggest arms importers, a global manufacturing hub.

Western diplomats have previously said that a key obstacle to the transfer of sensitive military technology to India is its defence ties with Russia and the vast amount of Russian-origin arms used by the Indian military, totalling about 36%.

The talks in Moscow were held on the sidelines of a visit by an Indian defence-industrial delegation on October 29-30, headed by India’s Defence Production Secretary Sanjeev Kumar, that was aimed at laying the ground for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to India on December 4-5.

A spokesperson for Adani Group denied that executives from any of its firms attended the meetings. India’s defence ministry and the other firms cited by the sources did not respond to requests for comment.

Indian firms, however, would be hesitant about striking new deals with Russia due to the risk of secondary sanctions, an Indian executive said.

While India can use diplomatic outreach and lobbying to offer some protection from sanctions, an Indian defence official said the firms would have to factor in the political risks themselves.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2025