India-Russia to hold joint anti-terror excercises

Moscow, Jan 20: The Armed Forces of India and Russia will hold joint land and naval counter-terrorism exercises, 'INDRA-2007' later this year.

"The details of the upcoming joint Russian-Indian exercise will be discussed during a visit of Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov to India," the head of the Main Directorate for International Military Cooperation, Col General Anatoly Mazurkevich told RIA Novsoti news agency.

The joint military excercise will be held before the five-day visit of Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov to India to co-chair a meeting of the Indo-Russian Inter-Governmental Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation (IRIGC-MTC).

'INDRA-2007' is a biennial joint military exercise between the Armed forces of Russia and India aimed at coordinating a cooperative engagement in the fight against terrorism. Earlier, the joint 'INDRA-2005' was held in India on October 10-20, 2005.

The naval part of 'INDRA-2007' will be held in April 2007 at the Pacific Ocean involving naval units of the Russian Pacific Fleet and the Indian Navy.

The land part of the joint military manoeuvres is scheduled for mid-September at the training grounds of the 76th Airborne Division near the city of Pskov in north-western Russia.

"Paratroopers will practice air drops with live firing," Mr Mazurkevich said, adding that the anti-terrorism exercise will involve a Russian airborne battalion and a company of Indian paratroopers.

Mr Mazurkevich also said Mr Ivanov will discuss the bilateral military-technical cooperation during his visit to India on January 22-25.

The Defence Minister will arrive in Bangalore on January 23 to hold talks with HAL and ISRO officials before co-chairing the IRIGC-MTC with his Indian counterpart AK Anthony on January 24 in New Delhi. Later, he will join President Vladimir Putin's delegation for summit-level talks with Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on January 25-26.

He pointed out the supply of spare parts to Russian-made military equipment that was previously sold to India and the licensed production of RD-33 jet engines for MiG-29 Fulcrum and Su-30MKI Flanker C fighter aircraft in service with the Indian Air Force, will be high on the agenda of talks.

UNI