As President Hu Jintao prepares to visit Islamabad later this month, Beijing has stepped up political pressure on Moscow to let it equip Pakistani fighter aircraft JF-17 Thunder Jets with Russian engines.

Russia has already agreed to supply Klimov RD-93 engines to the JF-17s being produced in China. Serial production of the JF-17 reportedly began earlier this year. Pakistan plans to buy 150-200 JF-17s in the coming years.

Russian policy prohibits the re-export of Russian-origin equipment to third countries. For now, Pakistan is not on the list of countries that Russia exports arms to. Without Russian engines, Pakistan’s JF-17s will not fly.

Moscow’s decision to release the engines would underline three big political setbacks for India. Under pressure from New Delhi, which has bought billions of dollars worth of Russian arms over the last four decades, Moscow has held back from selling arms to Pakistan. While India was willing to swallow the resumed military relationship between Russia and China in the last decade, it will find it hard to accept Russian arms supplies to Pakistan.

The JF-17’s take-off in Pakistan, with Russian assistance, would showcase the Indian failure to get the much talked about Light Combat Aircraft off the ground. The LCA, christened “Tejas”, was launched before China and Pakistan unveiled their plans for JF-17.

Worse still, Russian cooperation will allow China and Pakistan to leverage the JF-17 as a means to expand political influence with the security establishments in Asia, Africa and Latin America. China and Pakistan consciously designed the JF 17 for export.

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