By IANS,
New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will Thursday leave for Russia on a three-day visit to hold a summit with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, apart from meeting Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
During the visit, India and Russia are slated to focus on expanding their growing ties in nuclear energy, hydrocarbons, defence and economic fields by signing over half-a-dozen agreements.
The invite has come from President Medvedev for the annual bilateral Indo-Russian summit, the external affairs had said Dec 8 while announcing the Dec 15-17 visit.
The two countries are inching closer to signing a deal on units III and IV of the Kudankulam nuclear plant in Tamil Nadu, where locals are protesting over safety concerns of the plant.
The deal is still under works. Although the formal signing may not happen during this visit, the two countries are expected to discuss the issue at the summit level.
New Delhi and Moscow are also likely to discuss ongoing defence projects such as the leasing of the Russia nuclear-powered submarine to Indian Navy for 10 years beginning 2012, joint development of the fifth generation fighter aircraft and multi-role transport aircraft, and refit of the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier that is to be delivered to Indian Navy in December 2012.
They will finalise means to achieve their target of $20 billion annual bilateral trade, which now hovers at $10 billion, before 2015.