New Delhi
21 December 2010
India and Russia cemented their "special and privileged strategic partnership"
by signing a raft of deals, including one on design and development of an advanced fifth
generation fighter aircraft.
The design contract is worth about Rs 1,500 crore (at current conversion rates). The
Indian Air Force plans to acquire up to 300 units of this aircraft, therefore the final deal
could be worth an estimated Rs 1.5 lakh crores.
The talks between visiting Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh also achieved progress on the construction of additional nuclear
reactors at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu.
The head of the Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, Sergei Kiriyenko, has hinted
at plans to build 18 reactors across "three" sites in India.
An agreement was signed to broaden scientific and technical cooperation in nuclear
energy under which efforts will be made to jointly develop new-generation fast breeder
reactors. Civil nuclear cooperation with third countries will also be considered.
Also signed was an inter-governmental agreement on cooperation in the hydrocarbon
sector that envisages joint ventures in oil and gas projects in India, Russia, and third
countries, and MoUs on cooperation in IT and pharmaceuticals.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Mr Medvedev, Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh said the scope and breadth of the 29 agreements signed on the occasion "reflects
our mutual desire to bring our cooperation in other areas at par with our traditionally
strong cooperation in the defence and nuclear fields."
He topped that up by saying: "Russia is a time tested friend of India that has stood by us
in our times of need in the past. Ours is a special and privileged strategic partnership. It
is a partnership that has and will continue to develop independent of our relations with
other countries."
Eleven of the 29 agreements were signed in the presence of Mr Medvedev and Dr Singh,
while the remaining were either signed on the margins of the summit (such as the design
contract for the aircraft) or earlier (an MoU for setting up a 50:50 joint venture for an
integrated steel plant in Karnataka was signed on December 10.)
Two agreements were signed in the area of space technology, both pertaining to Glonass
(acronym for Global Navigation Satellite System). It is the Russian equivalent of the US
Global Positioning System (GPS), and it has civil and military applications.
Under the pacts, which flowed from the understanding reached in 2004, Russia will give
India access to the Glonass high precision navigation signals and also jointly produce
the ground equipment for the introduction of the service in India.
Without mincing words, the joint statement issued after the Medvedev-Singh talks
"called upon Pakistan to expeditiously bring all the perpetrators, authors and
accomplices of the November 2008 Mumbai attacks to justice."
In reply to a question about the existence of terrorist safe havens in the region, Mr
Medvedev said no modern civilised state can hide terrorists as law abiding citizens.
"They are subject to punishment for the evils they have committed. To extradite them we
need legal, bilateral frameworks, bilateral agreements between two countries. Once they
are in place they should be applied between countries, including countries in this
region," he elaborated.
Both sides hoped that the conclusion of the agreement on simplification of visa
procedures would also help to enhance contacts between their business communities
and enable them to meet the trade target of $ 20 billion by 2015.
According to the joint statement, entitled "Celebrating a decade of the India - Russia
strategic partnership and looking ahead", bilateral civil nuclear energy cooperation and
the traditionally close cooperation in the military-technical field are the two main pillars
of the strategic partnership, which was declared in 2000. The military-technical
cooperation includes, but is not limited to, joint manufacture of armament and transfer of
technology.
Atomstroyexport, a subsidiary of the state-owned nuclear company Rosatom, is already
building two 1,000 MW reactors at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu in collaboration with the
Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL). The first unit is likely to start
operations soon.
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