New Delhi: BrahMos Aerospace — the Indo-Russian aerospace and defence corporation — is not considering selling its missiles to Russia as long as the Russia-Ukraine war continues, highly-placed sources in the company have told ThePrint.
This comes after Hong-Kong-based Asia Times picked up excerpts from BrahMos Aerospace chief executive officer and managing director Atul Dinkar Rane’s interview with the Kochi-based The Week magazine talking about BrahMos sales to Russia. The report was also picked up by other media outlets.
In an interview earlier this month, Rane said that the company, which was founded in 1998, was “continuously looking at Russia as a market for BrahMos” and that, had Russia purchased the missiles earlier, “they would have had a lot of things to use in the current situation”.
“After the ongoing situation in Europe ends, we might get some orders from Russia, especially for the air-launched BrahMos. They do not have an equivalent. There is no equivalent to the air-launched BrahMos in the world. I see that as a gamechanger in terms of exports,” Rane had said in his interview.
BrahMos Aerospace was founded in 12 February 1998, as a joint venture between the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Moscow’s state-owned rocket design bureau, NPO Mashinostroyenia. India has a 50.5 percent stake in the venture, while Russia owns the rest.
However, highly-placed sources in BrahMos Aerospace called the subject “sensitive” and claimed Rane’s remarks were being “misinterpreted”.
“These articles are propagating false news, when no such thing is being said,” a source at BrahMos Aerospace told ThePrint. “In fact, this should not even be talked about since no such official communication has gone out from BrahMos’ side.”
On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine — a development that the former says was done to stop the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, from expanding. The conflict has claimed thousands of lives on both sides and led to a massive internal displacement in Ukraine. Several western countries have since imposed multiple sanctions on Russia.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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