By Manish Chand, IANS
Moscow : India and Russia Monday signed four agreements in space, defence, trade and narcotics control and agreed to expand their ongoing cooperation in civilian nuclear energy.
The agreements were signed after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin that were characterised by “warmth, cordiality and unanimity on all issues of mutual interest”.
In a clear message to those who suspect a chill in India-Russia ties, the two leaders affirmed their commitment to consolidate and expand their strategic ties and underpinned it with a robust economic partnership.
Although the two countries did not sign a pact on building four additional reactors at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu as the details were yet to be finalised, they decided to expand their operation in the crucial area of civil nuclear energy.
Manmohan Singh thanked Putin for “Russia’s steadfast support in supplementing India’s nuclear energy programme and his assistance in lifting international restrictions on nuclear cooperation with India”.
Russia was one of the first countries to offer support to India in the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) after India and the US struck a historic civil nuclear cooperation accord. Russia is currently engaged in building two reactors of 1,000 MW at Kudankulam, which are near completion.
“There has been substantial forward movement on many of the issues that we had discussed at our last summit in January. We held wide ranging discussions and identified areas for further cooperation between our two countries,” Manmohan Singh said at a joint press interaction with Putin.
Indian officials brought up the issue of delay and price escalation in arms contracts with the Russian side but both ended the delegation-level discussion on a positive note while affirming that defence cooperation was “one of the pillars of strategic partnership” between the two countries.
The continuing strength of defence ties was illustrated by an agreement signed by the two sides on the joint development and production of multi-role transport aircraft. The two sides will also be collaborating on the joint development of a fifth generation fighter.
Besides defence, space and civil nuclear cooperation which have been pillars of India-Russia ties, the two countries decided to impart a momentum to their sluggish trade and investment ties and set a target of increasing bilateral trade from $4 billion to $10 billion by 2010.
They signed an agreement to resolve the long pending issue of rupee-rouble trade, which will enable the utilisation of accumulated rupee debt worth around Rs.46 billion for Russian investment in India.
“We discussed ways to substantially upgrade our economic ties which should form the bedrock of our strategic partnership. We agree that there are enormous opportunities for collaboration,” Singh said.
In tune with their growing strategic partnership, the two countries inked a pact on joint exploration of the moon, which will boost their cooperation in the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes. The space agreement was signed between the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Russia’s Federal Space Agency.
An agreement to combat illicit trafficking in narcotics and psychotropic substances was also signed between the two countries.
Underlining a “mutuality and convergence of interests” between India and Russia, Singh said: “the strategic partnership between the two countries has stood the test of time”.
“Through our discussions today, we have consolidated and strengthened our engagement in different areas. I am very satisfied with the results of my visit.”