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West won’t be able to halt India-Russia defense partnership — BrahMos chief

"The trust which we have developed between the two partners, … that trust is good enough for us to work, and we are working forward - despite all these sanctions," Atul Dinkar Rane said

NEW DELHI, February 8. /TASS/. The West’s attempts won’t stop Russia-India defense partnership, BrahMos Aerospace Indo-Russian Joint Venture Managing Director and CEO Atul Dinkar Rane told TASS on Wednesday.

"My personal gut feeling — it is never!" the chief executive said, responding to a question about whether Western countries could halt India-Russia defense and security cooperation.

"And if someone tries, he will only fail…The relationship between the Indian scientists and Russian technologists is so deep right now that it’s not going to be possible to break it. Even if someone tells us by law — no more talking with Russia, you will start talking to someone else — but we’ll always say it was easier to work with the Russians," he added.

The West’s unilateral sanctions imposed on Russia have not affected the operation of BrahMos Aerospace, he stressed.

"The trust which we have developed between the two partners, … that trust is good enough for us to work, and we are working forward - despite all these sanctions. There are problems but these problems we have been able to manage by discussion and seeing how to work on them. We have no problems in the supply chains, we have no problems in discussing, there are no problems in traveling and talking to each other," Rane said.

The BrahMos is a supersonic cruise missile produced by the Indo-Russian BrahMos Aerospace Joint Venture. The missile has been developed by Russia’s Research and Production Association of Machine-Building (situated in the suburban town of Reutov near Moscow) and India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO).

The BrahMos missile was test-launched for the first time in 2001. Its different versions are operational in all the three branches of India’s Armed Forces: the Air Force, the Army and the Navy. The Joint Venture is headquartered in New Delhi. The BrahMos missile was named after the Brahmaputra River of India and the Moskva River of Russia.