'India to gain in two ways,' says Russian expert on reports of supplying JF-17 fighter jet engines to Pakistan

World News: Russian defense experts said on Sunday that if Russia supplies RD-93 engines to Pakistan's JF-17 fighter jets, it could actually benefit India. They dismissed opposition criticism of the Indian government on this issue.

Pyotr Topychkanov, head of the South and Southeast Asia section at the Moscow-based Primakov Institute, said, "I don't think the criticism here is justified. If reports of Russia providing engines for the JF-17 are true, India will benefit in two ways."

Advantages for India

First, it shows that China and Pakistan have not yet succeeded in replacing the Russian engine. Second, the new aircraft will be familiar and predictable for India, especially since both aircraft share the same engine and India saw the JF-17 in operation during the May 2025 crisis (Operation Sindoor).

Topichkanov recalled that China had requested the supply of RD-93 engines from Russia as a temporary measure for its FC-17 jets. However, the governments of then Prime Ministers Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Dr. Manmohan Singh raised the issue with Russia, fearing the possibility of their transfer to Pakistan.

Russia's Assurances to India

Another expert, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he had a vague recollection of this discussion. Moscow had assured New Delhi that the RD-93 deal was purely commercial and involved no technology transfer, while India had been granted a license for the superior RD-33 engine under technology transfer.