India, Russia Sign Agreement For Further Military-Technical Co-operation

The Indian and Russian defense ministers have signed an agreement for further military-technical co-operation between the two nations.

“We note progress in our large projects such as joint construction of Ka-226 helicopters, BrahMos cruise missiles, S-400 Triumph air defense systems,” Russian defense minister  Sergei Shoigu  was quoted as saying by Sputnik at a meeting of the Indo-Russian Inter Governmental Commission on Military Technical Cooperation (IRIGCMTC) Wednesday.

"I think today is a good opportunity to summarize the past year and identify the challenges for the next year. We are ready to discuss the most pressing issues, problems and prospects of our military and military-technical cooperation. Additional tasks assigned during the meeting of the leaders of Russia and India on October 15-16 suggest that we need to expand our sphere of military-technical cooperation," Shoigu said.

The Russian and Indian defense ministries have been tasked with developing cooperation in the military-technical field, and have already made progress in talks on joint projects, including on S-400 air defense systems, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Wednesday.

At the 16th Russia-India delegation-level inter-governmental commission on military cooperation, Shoigu said that the sides had already started discussing and would continue discussing all those issues, in particular, related to the after-sales service of the previously supplied military equipment.

He also agreed with Indian Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar that "it is necessary to prepare a more extensive and more voluminous road map for bilateral military cooperation" between the military departments of the two countries.

After a hiatus of nearly a year, India and Russia had in February revived talks on the much delayed FGFA project after a clearance from Parrikar.

Since then, a lot of issues related to work share, IPR and technology transfer among others have been sorted out between the two sides along with the monetary commitments.

Under the new offer, India will have to pay about USD 3.7 billion, instead of USD 6 billion, for technological know-how and three prototypes of the fighters, the sources said.

In 2010, India had agreed to pay USD 295 million towards the preliminary design of the fighter, called in India as Perspective Multi-role Fighter (PMF).

The two sides are also expected to discuss the upgrade of SU-30 MKI, India’s front line fighter aircraft.

Russia is also eyeing the multi-billion dollar deal for P75-I project of India under which six conventional submarines are to be built with Air Independent Propulsion systems.

With deals over USD 12 billion in kitty this month, including leasing of a second nuclear submarine, Russia hopes to bag more projects as it termed itself as not just a business partner but an “ally” who stood by India in its “darkest hours”.