Days after The Indian Express reported that Russia was seeking $1.2 billion more for the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, more than twice the original cost, Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta, making a tough statement today, said there should be no renegotiation on the Gorshkov price and the delay in delivery and demand for more money from Moscow should make New Delhi “think where our relations with Russia are going”.

“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 ahead of Navy Day celebrations.

Maintaining that Moscow should honour 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 blamed the Gorshkov delay on Russia, saying the country reduced the project manpower once its shipyards got more business after modernising “with our money”.

“Over the years, with our money, a lot of prosperity has come to their shipyards. Now the shipyards have got more work and the workforce on Gorshkov has gone down,” said Mehta who is also Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee. In 2004, Russia gave India the carrier for free as its shipyards were desperate for some work, he said.

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