At time when India’s energy and defence ties with Russia have emerged as a major irritant in the India-US relationship, government-owned Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) has inked a memorandum of understanding with Russia’s Public Joint Stock Company United Aircraft Corporation (PJSC-UAC) — a company sanctioned by the US — to manufacture the latter’s SJ-100 regional jets in India.

If the MoU materialises, SJ-100 could become the first passenger jet to be fully manufactured in India, which harbours the ambition to become an aerospace manufacturing hub. India has been pushing global aircraft manufacturers to set up final assembly lines (FALs) for passenger jets in the country, given India’s status as the world’s third-largest domestic aviation market and the fastest-growing major aviation market

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