BRIC nations will become the "locomotive" to pull the global economy out of the current crisis as two major countries of the bloc -- India and China -- have suffered least from the downturn, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov has said.
Russia has said the maiden flight of the fifth generation fighter aircraft (FGFA), being developed by its Sukhoi design bureau in tie-up with Indian aerospace and defence major Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), will be made by the end of the year.
Ivanov also referred to Russian aid and cooperation in two nuclear plants at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu.
The delay in the refitting of aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov and a range of bilateral issues came up for discussion when Defence Minister A K Antony on Thursday met Russian vice premier Sergei Ivanov in Moscow.
The idea of a Russia-India-China triangle was first floated in 1998 by the then premier Yevgeny Primakov.
They met to finalise the agenda of the Indo-Russian summit on January 25 in New Delhi.
"Russia is a traditional supplier of equipment for nuclear power plants in India," First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov was quoted as saying on Monday. "The recent talks demonstrated that India still regards Russia as a reliable partner, as all stations we have built up till now work fairly well, and there have been no claims to us," the minister said.
Russia would remain militarily strong thanks to new technology and modern weapons, and not the number of its soldiers, said Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov.
Ivanov said Russia was developing the new generation warplane on its own and had no plan yet to involve other countries in its project.
The deal includes 700 million for the refit and modernisation of the ship and rest for a complement of 28 Mig-29K fighters and six Kamov-31 anti-submarine helicopters.
The Generation-next hypersonic inter-continental ballistic missile is capable of dodging any future missile shield.
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