Ivanov starts India visit: gunning for deal on 5th Gen fighter and MRTA

Moscow: Russia expects to start deepening its existing strategic partnership with India during the visit of its defence minister, and also deputy prime minister, Sergei Ivanov, to India, starting from 22 January. According to a briefing made in Moscow by a senior Russian defence ministry official, Russia and India will engage in discussions that may result in an agreement to jointly develop a fifth-generation fighter, as well as a multi-role transport aircraft (MRTA) in a few months.

Briefing the media ahead of Sergei Ivanov's January 22-26 visit, colonel-general, Anatoly Mazurkevich, chief of the international cooperation department of the Russian defence ministry, stressed that India was the only country with which Russia was transcending the "buyer-seller" relationship.

He said that Russia would be entering an active phase of joint development of new defence technologies and next-generation weapon systems and platforms with India.

"These issues will be the focus of a session of the Russian- Indian intergovernmental military-technological cooperation commission led on the Russian side by deputy prime minister and defense minister Sergei Ivanov, which is to take place in Delhi on January 24," Mazurkevich told reporters.

"I hope agreements on the joint development of a fifth-generation fighter and a medium-size military transportation aircraft will be signed with the Indian side within the next several months," he said. "The implementation of these projects is very important to both Russia and India," Mazurkevich said.

If positive, these discussions are expected to lend a strategic aura to Russian president Vladimir Putin's state visit to India as the country's chief guest for its Republic Day celebrations, held every year on 26 January.

Citing India's impressive R&D establishment, and the fact that India did not pose any threat to India, Mazurkevich said that it was no surprise that India is Russia's sole foreign partner in the development of weapon systems capable of radically changing the regional balance of force.

According to Mazurkevich, several defence contracts, including licensed production of RD-33 engines for MiG-29 jets, should be signed in New Delhi next week on the sidelines of president Vladimir Putin's state visit.

Ivanov is here to attend the sixth meeting of the inter-governmental commission on military technical cooperation (IRIGC-MTC), which is headed by the defence ministers of both the countries, due to be held in New Delhi on January 24, 2007.

The commission covers areas like interaction between the two armed forces, military technical cooperation, as well as supply of defence systems, equipment up-gradation, licensed and joint production and development of weapon systems. The IRIGC-MTC was established in the year 2000, in an attempt to maintain the continuity of a time-tested strategic relationship.

Ivanov starts his visit to the country on 22 January, 2007, from the city of Bangalore, where he is due to visit defence establishments, including Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, as well as having interactions with IT professionals in the city.