India and Russia will ink an agreement tomorrow extending the current long-term ten-year defence cooperation between the two countries from 2011 to 2020. Opening the 9th meeting of Indo-Russian Inter-Governmental Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation (IRIGC-MTC) today, Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said the defence cooperation between the two countries is a ”key pillar” of the bilateral strategic partnership.
Before the plenary session of the meeting, Defence Minister A K Antony and his Russian counterpart held one-to-one talks at the Cultural Centre of the Armed Forces of Russian Federation, at the Suvorovoskaya Square in the city centre.
The one-to-one meeting between the two Defence Ministers was originally planned for 30 minutes, but it continued for over an hour.
Knowledgeable sources said the two sides exchanged views on all defence deals facing difficulties and hiccups mid-way their implementation, including the issue of price escalation of complete retrofitting of heavy aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov and leasing of nuclear-powered submarine Nerpa to India for a period of ten years. ”I am confident that the work of the Commission will be successful and useful,” Mr Anatoly Serdyukov said.
”We will review its work and discuss future prospects of bilateral defence cooperation,” he added.
The two sides would sign a protocol on the results of the meeting tomorrow.
