India Dismisses NYT Report on Defence Firm’s Russia Links as Misleading

New Delhi: A report in The New York Times linking a company that is part of a British aerospace major to a state-run Indian defence firm claiming that the latter has ties with a Russian arms agency is “factually incorrect” and “misleading”, official sources said on Monday. The report suggested that military hardware supplied by the British firm to the Indian company may have found its way to the Russian agency Rosoboronexport.

The report has “tried to frame issues and distort facts to suit a political narrative”, the sources said, adding the media outlet “overlooked” basic due diligence.

“The Indian entity mentioned in the report has scrupulously followed all its international obligations on strategic trade controls and end-user commitments,” said a source.

“India’s robust legal and regulatory framework on strategic trade continues to guide overseas commercial ventures by its companies,” it said.

“We expect reputed media outlets to undertake basic due diligence while publishing such reports, which obviously was overlooked in the instant case,” the source said.

The New York Times report, citing “documents”, claimed that one of the biggest corporate donors to the populist Reform U.K. party has sold almost USD 2 million worth of transmitters, cockpit equipment, antennas and other sensitive technology to a major supplier of Moscow’s blacklisted state weapons agency.

From 2023 to 2024, the company, part of the British aerospace manufacturer H.R. Smith Group, shipped the equipment to an Indian firm that is the biggest trading partner of the Russian arms agency, the report claimed.

“The records do not prove that H.R. Smith’s products ended up in Russia. But they show that, in some instances, the Indian company received equipment from H.R. Smith and, within days, sent parts to Russia with the same identifying product codes,” the report said.

The H.R. Smith Group said that its sales were lawful and the equipment was destined for an Indian search-and-rescue network, the NYT report said.
The parts “support lifesaving operations” and are “not designed for military use”, it quoted a company lawyer as saying.

A Reform Party spokesman said the donation from the company was “lawful” and “such woeful attempt to smear Reform will not work”, according to the report.