Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to sign accords on civil nuclear cooperation, defense and the hydrocarbon sector during a three-day visit to Russia, the Indian Foreign Ministry said.
Both the nations are in the “advanced” stages of finalizing an agreement on peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and India’s biggest explorer, Oil and Natural Gas Corp.’s overseas arm, ONGC Videsh, will participate in oil and gas fields in the Far East, according to a statement on the Foreign Ministry’s web site.
Russia and India, partners in the so-called BRIC nations, which also include China and Brazil, are looking to boost trade to $10 billion by 2010 and to restore a relationship that has cooled since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Russian-Indian trade volume reached $7 billion last year, the Russian presidential press service said in an e-mailed statement Sunday. It rose by 8 percent in the first nine months of this year, it said.
“Strengthening of relations with India is one of the external politics priorities for Russia,” the presidential press service said. “Similar approaches to global and regional problems and concurrence in the long-term national interests of both countries are a reliable basis for further deepening of bilateral ties.”
The two nations will sign agreements on military and technical cooperation, after-sales support for Russian arms and military equipment and on the development and production of multirole transport aircraft, according to the statement.
Singh will meet Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and hold talks with his counterpart, Vladimir Putin, at the annual summit meeting Monday, according to the Indian Foreign Ministry.
“The annual summit is the principal mechanism for the advancement of our strategic partnership with Russia,” Singh said in a statement before his departure. “This is a partnership based on the solid foundation of long-standing friendship, deep mutual trust and strong convergence of interests.”
Current joint projects include construction of a nuclear power station in Kudankulam in the Tamil Nadu state in India’s south, the participation of India’s ONGC in the exploration of the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas field and the transport aircraft, the Russian presidential press service said.
The two sides are also expecting final agreements on two defense pacts reached in October between the countries’ defense ministers.
India is hoping to conclude a $1 billion deal for 80 Russian Mi-17 helicopters and contracts for fitting Brahmos missiles onto Sukhoi fighter planes.
The countries also hope to come to an agreement on the renovation of the Admiral Gorshkov. In a $1.6 billion deal signed in 2004, Russia was to modernize the aircraft carrier and deliver it by 2008.
But delivery has been pushed back to 2012 and its price nearly doubled to $2.8 billion.
(Bloomberg, MT)
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