India and Russia will soon form a Joint Working Group on terrorism and call for an international fight, without "double standards" against the global menace.
Though the wordings of the Delhi declaration to be signed by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Russian President Vladimir Putin is yet to be finalised, it is expected to carry subtle hints to the US of the Indian and Russian unhappiness over its "double standards" regarding terrorism.
"It would be a bilateral declaration, we won't have any reference to some third country," asserted a senior diplomat, but admitted that both Russia and India are not appreciative of "double standards" of western nations on terrorism.
The two sides also want the Iraq crisis to be resolved under United Nations supervision, and avoid a war, which the US is itching for.
Indian officials said they would be presenting to Putin "hard facts" on Pakistan's involvement in international terrorism and its role in providing nuclear technology to North Korea.
When it comes to North Korea, Russia may not be so aggressive like the Indians, admitted officials.
In Beijing, his last stop, Putin and Jiang Zemin had called for a peaceful de-nuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.
Both China and Russia are traditional allies of North Korea, unlike India.
Having realised that the western countries, especially the US, was not able to get Pakistan to implement its assurance to end cross-border terrorism, India is now looking at the possibility of Russia taking up cudgels on its behalf. "The forceful statesman that Putin is, we might find better results through him than the Americans," said an Indian diplomat.
During the negotiations with the Russian side, India is expected to seek further assistance from Russia for its civilian nuclear programme, especially in the immediate expansion of the Kudankulam plant.
The project report on the plant was completed recently and the memorandum of understanding for the construction of the plant was signed during Prime Minster Vajpayee's visit to Russia in November 2001.
Indian officials said the request for further assistance in civil nuclear sector could be covered under the MoU in the Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy that was signed when Putin visited India in October 2000.
During Putin's 2000 visit, a Declaration on Strategic Partnership between the two countries was signed.
The present visit of Putin is part of the annual summit level interaction that both countries reiterated during Putin's visit of 2000. So, in 2001 Vajpayee went to Moscow, and now Putin is back in New Delhi.
A senior ministry of defence official told rediff.com that both sides would try to "sidestep" contentious defence deals such as Admiral Gorshkov and look at expanding their "areas of joint research and development and service-to-service cooperation".
During Putin's visit to India in October 2000, an Inter-Governmental Commission for Military Technical Cooperation (IGCMTC) was established to expand the defence relations. This commission is "active and expanding the areas of cooperation", the official said.
The two sides would also discuss ways to beef up the international North-South Corridor between India, Iran and the Russia. Under an agreement signed in September 2000, goods movement from India was to be facilitated through sea route to Iran and from there via Caspian Sea to Russia and beyond. This route would bring down the cost of transportation and time required, but the route was yet to be "fully explored", a senior diplomat said.
