Indian Navy chief Admiral SureeshMehta Monday said there should be no renegotiation on the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov price and the delay in delivery, local newspaper The Indian Express reported on Thursday.
Mehta said demand for more money from Moscow should make New Delhi "think where our relations with Russia are going".
According to the report, Russia was seeking 1.2 billion U.S. dollars more for the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, more than twice the original cost.
"The Navy line is that the government should not get into price renegotiation at all. If today we reopen Gorshkov, tomorrow all our projects with Russia can be opened for renegotiation," Mehta told reporters.
Maintaining that Moscow should honor the original price contract signed in 2004, Mehta said penalty clauses will be implemented by India in case of any delay in the project.
"There will be a lot of additions and subtractions and in the end, I personally don't think we will be paying much more, if at all anything, extra," he said.
He made it clear there would be no going back on the Gorshkov deal. "We have put in 500 million U.S. dollars into the project already. We own the ship? If they put enough manpower on the ship today, it will take two years plus to complete the work. We would see the ship by early 2011 or late 2010," he said.
He ruled out the acquisition of the U.S. Kitty Hawk, the conventionally powered U.S. carrier due to retire next year, saying that it was a "1960s platform".
Source: Xinhua
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