New Delhi on Thursday slammed Reuters report on diversion of Indian defence exports to Ukraine, terming it “inaccurate and mischievous.”
“We have seen the Reuters report. It is speculative and misleading. It implies violations by India, where none exist and, hence, is inaccurate and mischievous,” Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.
In an “exclusive” report, Reuters had claimed that “artillery shells sold by Indian arms makers have been diverted by European customers to Ukraine.”
It further alleged that India “has not intervened to stop the trade despite protests from Russia.”
Reacting to the report, the MEA spokesperson said, “India has an impeccable track record of compliance with international obligations on the export of military and dual use items. India has been carrying out its defence exports taking into account its international obligations on non-proliferation and based on its own robust legal and regulatory framework, which includes a holistic assessment of relevant criteria, including end user obligations and certifications.”
Reuters report claims
Reuters alleged that its report was based on eleven Indian and European government and defence industry officials, as well as its analysis of commercially available customs data.
It mentioned its sources claiming that the “transfer of munitions to support Ukraine’s defence against Russia has occurred for more than a year”.
Reuters even claimed that two of its Indian government and two defence industry sources as saying that New Delhi “produced only a very small amount of the ammunition being used by Ukraine”. The report further alleged one of the officials estimating that “it was under 1 per cent of the total arms imported by Kyiv since the war.”
“Among the European countries sending Indian munitions to Ukraine are Italy and the Czech Republic, which is leading an initiative to supply Kyiv with artillery shells from outside the European Union,” the Reuters report quoted a Spanish and a senior Indian official as claiming.
Reuters claimed that all the sources quoted in its article spoke on condition of anonymity.
Read the entire Reuters report
here: Indian artillery shells diverted to Ukraine by European buyers, New Delhi ‘ignores’ Russia’s protest
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