NEW DELHI (TASS) — Washington has no right to tell New Delhi what to buy from Moscow, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told reporters during a visit to the United States, commenting on plans to purchase the Russian-made S-400 missile systems.

As cited by NDTV Jaishankar said:

We have always maintained that what we buy - the sourcing of military equipment - is very much a sovereign right.

[…]

We would not like any state to tell us what to buy or not to buy from Russia any more than we would like any state to tell us what to buy or not buy from America […] That freedom of choice is ours and we think it’s in everybody’s interest to recognize that.

At the same time, he said that India and the United States were discussing Washington’s concerns about the S-400 purchase.

New Delhi announced plans to buy the S-400 systems back in 2015. A contract for the S-400 delivery, worth $5.43 bln, was signed during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to India in 2018, causing outrage from Washington that keeps threatening to impose sanctions on countries purchasing weapons and military equipment from Moscow.