NEW DELHI: New records show that India’s Munitions India Ltd (MIL), a public sector enterprise under the Ministry of Defence, was allowed to ship arms to Israel, potentially making New Delhi complicit in war crimes committed in Palestine, The Wire reported.
MIL was “been permitted to ship its products to Israel as recently as January 2024. On 18 April 2024, the company has again applied for exporting the same products under a repeat order from Israel,” the report reads.
The company was founded in 2021 as a part of the restructuring and corporatization of the 41 ordnance factories as seven different Public Sector Enterprises. According to the company brochure, MIL works in the “production, testing, R&D and marketing of a comprehensive range of ammunition and explosives for the army, navy, air force and para-military forces.”
MIL’s 12 manufacturing units across the country provide an “integrated base for production of small, medium and high calibre ammunition, mortars, rockets, hand grenades etc with in-housing manufacturing of initiatory compositions, propellants and high explosives,” the company brief continues, adding that its objective is “to provide competitive edge to the armed forces by equipping them with modern and quality battlefield ammunition.”
The Wire states that accordingly, MIL products would fall under the munitions list SCOMET – Special Chemicals, Organisms, Materials, Equipment and Technologies – which would require direct authorization by the Department of Defence Production for export.
The license which was approved in January, however, was only approved by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade, meaning the products that Israel procured were “dual-use” items, not explicitly for military use, but could be in the form of explosives and pyrotechnics, initiators, fuses and charges that can be claimed for use in other engineering sectors.
India was also home to Adani–Elbit Advanced Systems India Ltd, a joint venture between Adani Defence and Aerospace and Israel’s Elbit Systems, which has reportedly sent Israel over 20 Hermes 900 UAVs for military use between 2019 and 2023.
Private Indian company Premier Explosives Ltd (PEL) was also reported to have been exporting explosives and allied accessories to Israel since at least 2021. PEL was granted permission to ship these goods twice since the war on Gaza began, on 20 November 2023 and 1 January of this year.
India remains the top buyer of Israeli arms despite the latter’s war on Gaza. New Dehli has continued military trade with Tel Aviv, purchasing $2.9 billion from Israel over the last decade.
In October 2023, New Dehli abstained from a UN ceasefire vote.
