"India, Russia not to sign agreement on T-90 main battle tanks"

Moscow, Jan 21 (UNI) A top Russian Defence Ministry official has denied that and Russia and India will sign an agreement on the Russian supply of a large number of T-90 main battle tanks (MBT) to India during Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov's visit.

The head of the Main Directorate of International Military Cooperation under Russian Defence Ministry, Col General Anatoly Mazurkevich told mediapersons that no such agreement will be signed during the Defence Minister's visit to India.

Mr Ivanov will be leaving for a five-day visit to India on January 22. During his visit he would co chair the sixth meeting of the Indo-Russian Inter-Governmental Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation (IRIGC- MTC) with his Indian counterpart A K Antony, on January 24 in New Delhi. Thereafter he will directly fly to Bangalore for an interaction with senior officials of the defence and civilian enterprises, including ISRO and HAL.

Mr Mazurkevich was referring to earlier media reports that India had ordered 300 modernised T-90 tanks from Russia, under the terms of 950 million dollars contract, as a part of the deal on the delivery and licensed production of T-90 tanks, signed by Russia and India in 2001.

India had bought 310 T-90 tanks in 2001 for 800 million dollars.

Russia began deliveries of the first order of 124 tanks in 2002 and completed the supply last year. The remaining 186 have been assembled at the Avadi Heavy Vehicles Factory in India.

India was the first export customer for the T-90 tank, which has been in Russian Army service since the mid-1990s.

UNI