Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov has denied his country's cooperation with India on the development of the 5th generation fighter aircraft, saying that no agreement will be signed during the coming summit of President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, early next month.
"We are not planning to sign the agreement on the 5th generation fighter during the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh," Interfax news said, quoting Ivanov at a press conference in the Russian city of Perm, on Thursday.
He said Russia was developing the new generation warplane on its own and had no plan yet to involve other countries in its project.
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"So far, we will be implementing the project by ourselves," Ivanov said.
He said the two countries will sign agreement on the development of medium military transport aircraft, during Dr Singh's visit to Moscow.
At the end of the 5th session of the Indo-Russian Inter-Governmental Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation, last week, Ivanov had said that the designing of the 5th generation and multi-purpose military transport aircraft were part of the defence cooperation between the two countries.
Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who co-chaired the session with Ivanov, had told reporters that India was interested in cooperating with Russia in developing the 5th generation aircraft.
He had also said that the MiG Aircraft Corporation will shortly make a presentation to the Indian Air Force on the design of the fighter so that the IAF could formulate its opinion on the plane. The Sukhoi Holding has already made its own presentation to the Indian side.
The Sukhoi design of the 5th generation fighter, which has been approved by the Russian Air Force, does not suit India as it needs a smaller and lighter plane.
