'BrahMos to open areas of co-op with Russia'

New Delhi, June 28: Declaring BrahMos as a successful joint venture between India and Russia, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said the missile project would open up new areas of cooperation with that country, and highlighted its considerable export potential in the global arms market as well.

''BrahMos is indeed the most important milestone in our cooperation with Russia.... The project will open up new pathways to our existing relationship with Russia in other areas as well,'' Dr Singh said at the BrahMos Aerospace complex in Delhi Cantonment where he witnessed the weapons system and the hardware associated with the supersonic cruise missile.

''Russia has been a traditional and trusted supplier of defence systems and with this successful strategic partnership a new meaning from this maginficient project has been elevated to joint design, development and production between the two countries.'' Asserting that the programme will be the harbinger of more active cooperation between public and private partnership in the country, he said it had considerable export potential in the global arms market as well.

It is estimated that there will a 10 Billion Dollar demand for missiles like BrahMos -- since all other current anti-ship missiles either fly at subsonic speeds or have a much shorter range -- in the coming decade.

Dr Singh, who was accompanied by a high-level delegation and the top brass of the Indian Armed Forces, was received by BrahMos chief A Sivathanu Pillai, DRDO Director General M Natarajan and top scientists from Russia.

UNI