Indo-Russian defence cooperation gets further boost

New Delhi, Dec 3 : India and Russia have taken a significant step to boost Defence Cooperation at their first meeting of the India-Russia High Level Monitoring Committee (HLMC).

The two-day meeting, co-chaired by the Defence Secretary Vijay Singh and Mikhail Dmitriev, Director, FSMTC from the Russian side, ended here today.

Both sides discussed issues related to ongoing projects such as Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft, Multi-role Transport Aircraft, T-90 tanks, AWACS, SU-30MKI upgrade, aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov and Medium Lift Helicopters.

Cooperation between the defence forces of the two countries was also discussed.

This new forum was established during the last meeting of the India Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Military Technical Cooperation (IRIGC-MTC) held in New Delhi on September 29 under the joint Chairmanship of the Defence Ministers of both countries.

This forum was established to not only monitor implementation of ongoing Military Technical Cooperation (MTC) activities, but also identify new activities for enhancing defence cooperation by way of joint Research, Development and production of military hardware, including Transfer of Technology and cooperation between the armed forces of the two countries.

Earlier, the Cabinet Committee on Security had finalised the additional cost for repair and refit of aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya (formerly Admiral Gorshkov).

Negotiations have been on between India and Russia over the past year following the latter's demand for two billion dollars over and above the 1.5 billion dollars that New Delhi paid in 2004 for purchasing the warship.

The CCS also approved the Ministry's proposal to acquire 80 MI-17 helicopters for Indian Air Force at the earliest.

ANI