Russia offered India advanced military equipment such as the Su-57 stealth fighter, long-range drones, and submarines recently. But India did not show much interest, officials revealed. Moscow hoped for major defence deals during President Vladimir Putin’s visit, but those did not materialize. India signed 19 trade agreements instead, with no new defence breakthroughs. An official said, "India didn’t show much interest in the equipment offered by Russia. The Russians were expecting major movement on the sidelines of the visit and are still pursuing the proposals. We are very much focusing on development of indigenous products." India is pushing hard to become self-reliant in defence manufacturing. On December 7, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh dedicated 125 Border Roads Organisation projects in Leh and highlighted India’s rise in defence production value from ₹46,000 crore in 2014 to ₹1.51 lakh crore now. Defence exports jumped from less than ₹1,000 crore to nearly ₹24,000 crore in 10 years. The Geran drones offered by Russia, known for low-cost attack runs in Ukraine, did not attract Indian buyers. Earlier, on October 29, a high-level India-Russia working group met in Moscow to discuss tri-service cooperation and defence R&D. They signed a protocol to explore fresh collaborative areas but big defence deals remain pending. This marks a clear shift as India prefers local development over Russian defence imports at this time.