A matter of trust.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday extended a warm and strong invitation to American companies to participate in co-development, co-design and co-manufacture under the Make in India and the Atmanirbhar Bharat programmes under the rubric of defence," TOI. It was reported by a Western media outlet that the package under consideration would include foreign military financing of as much as $500 million to wean off India from purchasing military equipment from Russia." "For decades, India has tried to establish a local defence industry, building its own battle tanks and jets," wrote Mihir Sharma. But, the Indian built Arjun tank "can't be part of any battle plans on canal-heavy, militarized border with Pakistan," because "It weighs almost 70 tonnes and would collapse most bridges in Punjab. By contrast, Russia's T-90 tank weighs less than 50 tonnes." And, the Tejas fighter jet carries a smaller payload than the F-16 and takes longer to service. However, reducing dependence on Russian arms does not mean that we become puppets of the US. The US imposed sanctions on Turkey because of its purchase of the S-400 air defence system from Russia. "The sanctions put a ban on all US export licenses and authorizations to the Republic of Turkey's Presidency of Defense Industries as well as an asset freeze and visa restrictions on the organization's president, Ismail Demir, and other top officers," CNBC. Turkey is a member of NATO. Turkey decided to buy the S-400 system because the US refused "technology transfer and joint production terms" for the Patriot missiles, Reuters. "Turkey is pushing to co-manufacture of warplanes and missiles with Pakistan, a hook-up that could also give it access to prized war technology from China," ET. India's foreign exchange reserves consist mainly of US Treasuries and US institutional bonds, wikipedia. France has frozen Russian Central Bank assets worth 22 billion euros ($24 billion) because of the war in Ukraine, BS. Russian banks have been banned from the Swift system of international money transfers so as to completely wreck its economy, BBC. "The United States is considering blocking Russia's ability to pay its US bondholders by allowing a key waiver to expire next week, a US administration official said," ET. India has fought many wars with Pakistan, the latest was in Kargil in 1991, wikipedia. In the 1971 war the US assembled naval Task Force 74 in the Bay of Bengal to attack India but was thwarted by the Soviet Union, wikipedia. What if Pakistan attacks India again? The US will be able to block India from Swift, freeze all our dollar assets and disable our defence forces by withholding replacements and spare parts. India will become a slave of the US and we must not forget that the US became rich on slavery, Vox. Russia has been our friend. We must not be bribed by $500 million. Not worth it.