India, Russia agree on nuclear, defence and trade pacts
21 Dec 2010
New Delhi: At the end of a two-hour long summit India and Russia announced 30 agreements in key areas such as civil nuclear cooperation and defence, including development of Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) which will provide cutting-edge capabilities to the Indian military.
It was also agreed that both sides would target doubling bilateral trade to $20 billion by 2015.
The wide range of agreements at the summit will provide a new impetus to the "special and privileged" ties shared by both nations. The discussions ranged over crucial bilateral, regional and global matters.
In the course of the nearly two-hour long annual summit Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh and Russian president Dmitry Medvedev also took stock of the situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan which has a bearing on the security of both the nations.
According to a joint statement, both sides have arrived at a framework agreement which will allow the construction of two additional generating units at Kudankulam, a nuclear power plant in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where Russia is already setting up two reactors.
While first unit will be commissioned by end of this month or early next month, the second unit will be commissioned by next year-end.
