The production of S-400 missiles to be delivered to India has started, he said. "We will give 5 S400 missiles defence system (to India) by 2025. Russia is possessing one of the world's best defence system and it would serve well for Indian security," Babushkin -- quoted by an eminent news agency.
The S-400, an upgraded version of the S-300, missile defence system. It had previously only been available to the Russian defence forces since 2007 and is manufactured by Almaz-Antey.
India and Russia had signed the USD 5 billion S-400 air defence system deal in 2015. The deal was signed in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the 19th India-Russia bilateral summit in 2015.
India wants the S-400 missile defence system to tighten the air defence system along the 4000 km long Sino-India border.
The US, however, has opposed the S-400 deal with Russia with the Trump administration threatening to impose sanctions on the states that are acquiring weapons and military hardware from Russia.
“We're not going to allow that. So what we have pushed with Indians is: tighten up your procurement processes, tighten up your defence technology security processes and protocols, and then you're putting yourselves in a much more mature space to be a tighter, closer partner,” a US State Department official had said earlier.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will visit Russia on March 22 and March 23 to attend a meeting of the Russia-Indian-China trilateral.