India and Russia will sign a pact on Thursday to extend their military cooperation programme till 2020 as Defence Minister A K Antony and his counterpart Anatoly Serdyukov discussed a wide range of issues, including the upgrade of aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov.
India and Russia are involved in talks to sort out the nuclear liability issues before they sign an agreement for setting up Units III and IV of the Kudankulam power plant in Tamil Nadu during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's annual summit with President Putin in Moscow next week.
Four new nuclear reactors of 1,000 MW capacity each will be set up in Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu after India finalises a deal on it with Russia in June this year, a top scientist has said. The four 'VVER-type' reactors will be in addition to two 1,000 MW reactors which are already being constructed there. "India and Russia have already signed other enabling accords like agreements on sharing of information," Nuclear Power Corporation Chairman S K Jain said.
In a boost to the sagging defence relationship between India and Russia, the two nations on Friday signed a contract for supply of 80 MI-17V-5 medium lift helicopters for the Indian Air Force. Valued at $1 billion, the agreement between the two sides comes at a time when New Delhi and Moscow are squabbling over several defence related deals signed earlier.
Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon said in New Delhi that, "Both India and Russia are keen to expand nuclear cooperation. All the preparatory work has been done." He was inaugurating an international conference on "Changing Patterns of Indo-Russian Cooperation" organised by the Observer Research Foundation. He said that India and Russia already have an "excellent relationship" and India considers relations with Russia very important.
Notwithstanding its continuing military strikes against Ukraine, Russia has started supplying some components of the second regiment of the S-400 Triumf missile defence system to India, people familiar with the development said on Friday.
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Thursday said that India and Russia should avail of opportunities in each other's country for broadbasing investment flows.
After two straight wins, India went down 1-3 to a formidable Russian team in a fourth Pool A match in the FIDE World Women's Team Chess Championship, in Sitges, Spain.
Come December, India may have to re-evaluate purchases of Russian oil if a price cap on crude oil proposed by the US and the European Union (EU) comes into effect. That impacts nearly a quarter of India's oil purchases that come at a discount, helping limit marketing losses for India's state refiners and enabling New Delhi to manage inflation by freezing pump prices of motor fuels. In September, India imported 1 million barrels a day or 24 per cent of its overall imports from Russia, which became the biggest supplier of oil to India.
In another bid to iron out differences over cost escalation of weapons systems, including the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, Indian and Russian defence officials open crucial talks next week.
The Indo-Russian project to jointly design a transport aircraft for militaries of both nations kicked off in Moscow on Monday, where 30 engineers from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited began working with their Russian counterparts from the United Aircraft Corporation on the $600-million project.
Defence Minister A K Antony will co-chair the commission meeting with Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov to hold talks on a wide-ranging agenda of military technical cooperation, covering key spheres, including timely delivery of contracted military systems, in the light of the reported settlement of the cost-escalation issue and supply of defence systems.
Under the new deal signed in New Delhi on Friday by top officials of the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and Russia's state owned arms agency Rosenbroexport, Russia has agreed to supply 40 Sukois in semi-knocked down kits at a cost of $1.6 billion. By agreeing to new annual cost escalation of five per cent, India would now be paying whopping $5 billion for 230 Sukhois fighters, which currently are IAF's mainstay.
India and Russia held discussions on the possibility of cooperation in space exploration, including missions to the moon and Mars. Russia's head of Federal Space Agency met the Indian Space Research Organisation chairman.
India has refused to accept further deliveries of upgraded IL-38 anti-submarine aircraft complaning that the plane-detection equipment is not working to specifications.
According to officials in the Defence Production department, the deal for joint production of the multi-role transport aircraft would be split on fifty-fifty basis.
"Bilateral talks usually focus on a broad range of issues: from the crucial international problems, such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and response to international terrorism, to the coordination of the working issues of bilateral cooperation."
The Russian leader said as part of strengthening the strategic relationship between Russia and India there were serious plans for cooperation in high-tech, space research, aviation, construction of ships, energy, including nuclear energy.
If India signs the deal, it would be the second customer of the prized missile system after China which had struck a $3 billion contract last year.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday left for a three-day visit to Russia during which the two sides are expected to sign a framework agreement on civil nuclear cooperation and three pacts in the field of defence.Dr Singh, who will be undertaking his sixth visit to Russia since 2004, said he will also meet Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, under whose presidency the annual dialogue was set up.
India and Russia are expected to sign a nuclear deal for the construction of four additional reactors at the Kudankulam nuclear power plant and expansion of other sites during Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's three-day visit to New Delhi beginning Thursday, a top official has said."We plan to sign on Friday an inter-governmental agreement with India to build another four reactors for the Kudankulam nuclear power plant, and envisaging cooperation," said a Russian official.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, and the two leaders had a detailed discussion on the evolving situation in Afghanistan.
India has signed a deal worth over Rs 2,600 crore with Russia to procure 66,000 anti-tank shells to meet the shortfall of critical ammunition faced by its armoured fleet, including the latest T-90 tanks.
Idiocy is the source of Heropanti 2's outdated thrills, observes Sukanya Verma.
Johnson said Modi has been 'very strong' in his reaction to what happened in Bucha in Ukraine and that everyone understands and respects New Delhi's decades-old historic relationship with Moscow.
There was speculation that India might sign a civil nuclear pact with Russia in its attempt to garner support in the Nuclear Suppliers Group, of which Russia is an important member.
India and Russia will set up a joint task force to boost bilateral trade to a level of $10 billion by 2010 from the present $2billion, a senior official of the Indian government has said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu will visit India to hold the inaugural '2+2' ministerial dialogue between the two countries on December 6, the Russian embassy has said.
The statement hinted at China's eagerness not to upset the United States, with which it want to maintain good relations.
India and Russia are expected to ink an initial agreement on the construction of four additional nuclear power plants in Tamil Nadu's Kudankulam during President Vladimir Putin's visit to New Delhi next week.
'If the Russian forces do capture Kyiv and set up some sort of provisional government, they might run into an insurgency, for which the geography is just right, it could prove costly for them.' 'In that event, the whole exercise could turn out to be counter-productive -- and costly in both foreign policy and domestic terms.'
'There are reports that the Biden administration is contemplating imposing CAATSA sanctions against India, the largest democracy on Earth'
"The deal is being implemented. We witnessed attempts on the part of the US to undermine this cooperation and make India obey the American orders to follow the American vision of how this region should be developed," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
We can make a beginning by openly acknowledging the Russian help in 1971 victory when President Putin visits India on 6 December 2021. Showing gratitude to a friend is part of our DNA, notes Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
New Delhi is vulnerable to US sanctions under a 2017 law called CAATSA.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday thanked President Vladimir Putin for Russia's help and support in India's fight against Covid-19 as the two leaders agreed to establish a "2+2 ministerial dialogue" between foreign and defence ministers to add further momentum to the bilateral strategic partnership.
The US has already imposed sanctions on Turkey for the purchase of a batch of S-400 missile defence systems.
