India has ordered from Russia a total of $14.5 billion worth of weapons and other military equipment, said the Chief of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, Dmitry Shugayev, TASS news agency reported.

“Last year and today saw the emergence of a tremendous portfolio of contracts in contrast to all previous years, $14.5 billion. This is an impressive figure, it’s a real breakthrough,” Shugayev told the media last month.

“Military cooperation between Russia and India is the most important element of privileged strategic interaction,” he added.

Shugayev recalled that last year, although India was under pressure, mostly from the United States, major contracts were concluded for the supply of S-400 systems, frigates of project 11356, and a large batch of ammunition for the Air Force, the Navy and the ground forces.

“Currently we proceed with talks on the supply and licensed production of the portable air defense system Igla-S for India. As you may know we won a one-billion-dollar bidding contest,” Shugayev said.

Post-sale maintenance remains a major aspect of cooperation.

“Currently it is one of the main themes on the agenda. For this purpose we created a joint Russian-Indian working group for post-sale maintenance,” Shugayev said.