RUSSIAN SUBS. FOR INDIA

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30916, 24 November 1965, Page 21

RUSSIAN SUBS. FOR INDIA

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright)

NEW DELHI, November 23. The Soviet Union has quietly seized a golden opportunity to exert a heavy and perhaps crucial influence on India’s developing navy and its tactics, the Associated Press reports.

It was a chance forgone by both the United States and Britain.

The Defence Minister Mr Y. B. Chavan, announced in Parliament on Monday that India had contracted to buy Soviet submarines and “other naval craft.” and that Russian experts will help plan a new east coast shipyard at Vishakapatnam.

Mr Chavan refused to divulge details, but it is understood that India will take four Soviet submarines and “a number” of Russian torpedo boats, patrol craft and light ships of the type used in amphibious landings to put troops and tanks ashore.

India has no submarines, but its naval thinkers hope the nation will eventually have a fleet of 30 or more to protect its 3500 miles of coast and its estimated 280 islands.

Western experts in New Delhi have been worried for some time that the Russians would have a favoured position as the Indian Navy developed its submarine and amphibious fleets. Russian Training The value to the Russians is that if things go right they can bring the Indian Navy to a long-term dependence on Russian support and equipment, the Associated Press said. Indian submariners will have to be trained in the

Soviet Union and spare parts will also have to come from there.

i All this, Communist ex- : peris feel, will tend to tie I the Indian Navy to the Russians, in spite of the fact | that many Indian officers are (pro-Western in thinking and ! political philosophy. The Indian Navy spokesman said that the United States had been asked first to provide submarines, but Washington, apparently feeling that the threat to India was China’s land armies, suggested that Britain, India’s Commonwealth partner be asked.

London at first agreed to give one submarine, but later changed its mind. “Then, even though we

i wanted superior American equipment very badly, we turned to the Russians,” said the spokesman. Contrasting with the American attitude, the Soviet Union is doing everything to please India. Moscow has agreed to accept rupees, not scarce foreign exchange, in payment. Though the terms are not known, Moscow has apparently accepted long-term payment. In addition, the Russians are understood to have offered to build new submarines or completely condition relatively new ones for operation in tropical waters. Most Russian submarines are designed for cold Arctic waters.