India, Russia ink submarine deal; Turkey to get S-400 in Oct.

Officials from both sides signed a $3.3 billion lease agreement for Akula-II nuclear-powered attack submarine in the Indian capital New Delhi on Thursday, defense officials said.

Under the deal, Moscow would deliver the submarine to the Indian Navy by 2025, according to defense sources, without providing further information.

The deal has yet to be officially announced by the governments in India and Russia.

The submarine, which is the third to be leased, would replace INS Chakra, which was taken on a 10-year lease from Moscow for $2.5 billion in 2011 and the lease is expiring in 2022.

India also signed another defense agreement worth $5 billion to purchase five Russian S-400 Triumf mobile units during a bilateral annual summit in October.

The US had warned India over buying Russian arms which it said would be in violation of the sanctions against buying weapons from Moscow

That happened shortly after Washington imposed sanctions on China for its Russian arms purchases and also further threatened Turkey that it would do the same if it finalized its own S-400 deal. 

Moscow and Ankara, however, concluded an agreement on the delivery of the S-400 missile systems in December 2017.

Turkish Minister of Defense Hulusi Akar said on Friday that the acquisition of the missile systems was "not a preference for Turkey, but a necessary measure."

"Deployment of the S-400 will begin in October, the air force is studying in which regions it is better to install them," Akar added.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also said earlier that no country has the right to try to prevent Turkey from purchasing the S-400.

The leader of Turkey's Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) said on Thursday that Ankara would not ask Washington “which weapon to buy or from who and when.”       

The first batch of the system will be delivered to Ankara later this year.