Putin India Visit: Why Aerospace & Defence Companies Are Expected To Benefit From India-Russia Annual Summit?

The two leaders are expected to make key decisions on defence, bilateral trade and seek areas for cooperation despite US President Donald Trump’s tariff tantrums on India and cold shoulders with Putin.

Among many sectors that could benefit from the India-Russia annual summit, is also defence and aerospace companies. Indian PSU giants like Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL), Bharat Dynamics (BDL) and Bharat Electronics (BEL) in particular are seen to benefit big time from a strong deal between Modi and Putin.

Putin India Visit: India – Russia Defence Trade:

Since the onset of Kremlin’s war on Ukraine, India has refrained from signing any defence deal with Russia. Due to Moscow’s prioritization of its own defence systems for war, India also faced delays in delivery of various defence equipment from Russia in the past years.

It needs to be noted that over time India has changed its gear to becoming global arms exporter from depending on imports globally. India aims to achieve Rs 50,000 crore export by 2029, they are also driving their defence sector with innovation and embracing emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence.

Post Covid, Indian government’s budget allocation to defence sector has also skyrocketed to record highs. For FY26, India’s budget allocation is at Rs 6,81,210 crore for defence systems, which is higher by 6% from FY25 revised budget.

That being said, India’s dependency for imports from Russia has also dropped significantly. For instance, 72% of India’s arms imports were from Russia in 2010-14, which has reduced to 36% by 2020-24, as per SIPRI data. Despite this, about 50% of India’s in-service military platforms are of Russian origin.

In a report, Dr Chetigj Bajpee, Senior Research Fellow for South Asia, Asia-Pacific Programme at Chatham House said, “The brief conflict with Pakistan earlier this year offered India lessons on the utility of Russian military hardware.”

He cited reports that suggested India will use Putin’s visit to pursue a purchase of Russia’s 5th generation Su-57 fighter aircraft, along with advanced missile defence systems: were such a deal to progress it would signify a renewed confidence in Russia as a defence partner, although India’s long-term direction of travel towards diversifying arms imports and investing in domestic production would remain unchanged.

Also, the expert highlighted that the civil nuclear space is also a key area of cooperation. Russia is participating in India’s largest nuclear power project, and discussions are underway to expand this collaboration to other areas such as the development of small modular reactors.

Putin India Visit: India’s Defence Companies:

The Indian defence sector comprises several key market segments, with military fixed-wing aircraft, naval vessels and surface combatants, and missiles and missile defence systems representing the top three. Other prominent segments include military rotorcraft, submarines, artillery, tactical communications, electronic warfare, and military land vehicles. Leading defence manufacturing companies in India include Bharat Earth Movers Ltd. (BEML), Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL), and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL), as per IBEF.

Hence, BEL, BDL and HAL who are also in the list of top 30 defence companies in the world, are likely to benefit from Russia-India Deal.

Defence Stocks Performance:

Majority of defence stocks are in green on December 4, 2025. HAL, BEL and BDL surged by 1% to 2%, while Cochin Shipyard, Data Patterns, MTAR Technologies, Paras Defence & Space Technologies, and Solar Industries also jumped significantly.