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Czechs offer India military ware

A Czech Republic delegation, led by its defence minister on Monday offered to sell India a variety of military ware and assistance in upgrading weapon systems of Russian origin.

Vladimir Vetchy met Union Defence Minister George Fernandes and the three defence chiefs with the offer, but failed to elicit any concrete commitment on Monday.

He also extended an invitation to Fernandes to lead a delegation to the Czech republic, to see progress by his country in upgrading its Russian origin weapon and military systems. "Our research institutes are developing spare-parts for Russian-made systems and their upgradation," the minister said.

Vetchy told reporters after his meeting that India and his country were also working on a defence agreement covering military training and education.

"We hope to sign the first a memorandum of understanding in education and military training during Fernandes' visit to our country," he said. The MoU could later become a full-fledged defence agreement, he added.

The visiting minister pointed out that there was co-operation between the two countries without any formal agreement. In fact, last year Indian defence officials underwent specialised training in protection against weapons of mass destruction -- chemical, biological, and nuclear -- at a Czech military college.

"A topic discussed was co-operation in protection against weapons of mass destruction, especially chemical weapons," he said.

More than co-operation in all fields, the minister was eager to project and sell his country's progress in finding an indigenously replacement and upgradation for Russian origin weapon systems. India and the Czechs have Russian weapons systems, most of them similar.

He said the Czech republic had made great strides in upgrading T-72 tanks and several other systems. The Indian Army has T-72 tanks.

"We have a major achievement in upgrading the T-72 tanks. You don't need to upgrade the entire tank. We could achieve good results by selecting key components," he said.

They have upgraded its fire control and surveillance systems, he said.

The visiting minister said he has offered India quality surveillance equipment, radars, armoured personnel carriers and even the light combat aircraft, L1-51.

He also offered India ammunition and small fire-arms.

The republic is supplying radars to some civilian airports in India, besides assisting in upgrading armoured personnel carriers.

For military purposes, he said, his country had two mobile artillery radar units, which are "top class". The Smezka and Los systems, he said, were highly effective for surveillance and targeting and were "very versatile".

"The systems were recently introduced in our inventory," he said, pointing out that when Fernandes visited the Czech republic he could see them in action.

He said now that his country was a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member, upgradation of its weapon systems meant trying to find compatibility with NATO systems. "Most of the Czech inventory is Soviet. It will be impossible for anyone to replace all," he said, admitting that his country would go along with Russian systems for long.

He said the Czech republic would like to see India signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, but would not insist on it.

India-Czech trade volumes for last year were around $150 million, almost divided equally on both sides. Czech defence supplies to India are limited, but it was very eager to expand this component, the minister said.

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