Gorshkov, Sistema cloud over Putin’s India visit

By IANS,

New Delhi: Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to India next week could be clouded by New Delhi’s concern over the unnecessary delay in delivery of aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov and Moscow’s worries over the cancellation of Sistema’s telecom licence.


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One of the contentious issue that India is to seek more explanations from Putin is on aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, renamed INS Vikramaditya, that New Delhi agreed to buy in January 2004 for $947 million and whose price has escalated to $2.3 billion as of now, with no concrete timeframe for its delivery.

Defence Minister A.K. Antony had to explain to parliament earlier this month on the unnecessary delay in delivery of Vikramaditya, and hoped that it will come in the last quarter of 2013 as against the earlier delivery schedule of December 2012. Earlier too, the original delivery date was revised from August 2008 to December 2012.

Antony for the first time made it clear that the Indian government can possibly impose “liquidated damages” on Russia as per contract for late delivery of Vikramaditya.

India is likely to seek Putin’s firm assurance that handover of Vikramaditya is not further delayed beyond the revised November 2013 delivery date.

Russia on the other hand is worried that unnecessary delay in signing of Kudankulam nuclear power project III and IV and cancellation of 2G licence to Sistema, a partly owned Russian government undertaking, can cast a shadow on bilateral talks between the two countries Monday.

But India’s External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid has tried to dispel Kremlin’s fear over loss of its investments in the telecom venture.

The main focus of Putin’s visit to India for the 13th annual bilateral summit will be big-ticket defence deals, despite both sides having their own concerns over a number of issues.

Putin hopes to ink defence deals worth around $7.5 billion with India, that includes sale of 42 more Sukhoi-30MKI fighters, supply of 970 engines for Sukhois and 59 additional Mi-17 V5 armed helicopters.

India has already signed a pact for delivery of 80 Mi-17 V5 helicopters, of which 42 had already been inducted since February this year.

Besides this, India and Russia are to give $5.5 billion each for research and development of the fifth generation fighter aircraft that they are jointly developing. The Indian Air Force hopes to induct around 200 of them. However, there is no likelihood of signing an agreement on the design of the aircraft during Putin’s visit.

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