India’s defense exports reached a new milestone in 2023, surpassing $3 billion (approx 24,000 Crores) for the first time since the country gained independence.
According to Group Captain Uttam Kumar Devnath, a retired officer of the Indian Air Force, India’s move to implement stricter guidelines for defense exports is intended to avoid situations similar to what happened in Afghanistan. He shared this information with Sputnik a Russian media house on Thursday, May 30th.
“In the past, US weapons ended up in the hands of terrorists in Afghanistan and radical groups in Gaza. That’s why I believe India’s decision is a smart move to prevent Indian weapons from falling into the hands of militant groups and hostile countries,” said Devnath.
His comments followed reports that India’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) is enforcing stricter “end-user rules” for exporting military equipment. This decision was made after media reports revealed that Indian weapons and ammunition were ending up in unintended regions.
According to the Economic Times this week, the government is now emphasizing the strict enforcement of ” end-user certification guidelines”. This measure aims to ensure that Indian weapons do not end up in unauthorized hands.
Earlier, some Western reports claimed that Indian artillery shells were found in Ukraine. However, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) later clarified that India had not supplied 155mm artillery shells to the Eastern European country.
“We have seen some media reports about this, but we can clearly state that we have not sent any artillery ammunition to Ukraine. We have neither exported nor supplied them,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said earlier this year, as reported by Sputnik.
In this context, Devnath highlighted that India is now exporting military items to over 80 countries, with exports expected to surpass $5 billion (INR 40,000 Crores) by 2025-26.
He emphasized that India’s military equipment is sold to friendly nations, with the expectation that they will use them only for the intended purposes.
For example, when India arranged to export BrahMos missiles to the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia expressed their concerns. told India that the Philippines should not use the BrahMos missiles in any conflict between the Philippines and their countries, Devnath explained.
At that time, the defense analyst noted that India assured both Vietnam and Indonesia that the highly praised supersonic missile would not be used against them.
According to experts, such diplomatic assurances are common practices among countries that export arms and ammunition, as reported by Sputnik.
One way to ensure that Indian military exports don’t end up in unauthorized hands is through an end-user certificate. This certificate requires a friendly country buying weapons from India to promise that it won’t use the arms against any nation friendly to New Delhi,” the geopolitical expert explained.
However, these rules will now be much stricter than they were before.
Devnath shared details about India’s military-industrial complex, noting that it includes a large and strong network of defense manufacturing units. This network features public sector companies like Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and over 600 private sector firms involved in producing various weapons and ammunition.
To sell their military products abroad, these firms must first obtain a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Ministry of Defense (MoD), which then gets a similar NOC from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
