Partnership with Russian Federation to boost defence production: Modi

Amid huge “Modi-Modi” chants clubbed with a grand felicitation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday addressed the Indian community in Moscow while making a strong pitch for India-Russia ties which according to him go beyond politics, diplomacy, trade & commerce and stated that Russia has always stood beside his country as a “friend”.

Last week, India’s Defence Ministry’s top acquisition council had cleared the purchase of Russian S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems at an estimated cost of Rs 40,000 crore.

“I see in Russian Federation a prominent partner in India’s economic transformation”, Mr Modi said after the two leaders agreed to ease the visa requirements between the two nations.

The biggest ticket is defence with a multi-billion dollar agreement to manufacture military helicopters jointly, taking Russian Federation some way back towards its old position as India’s biggest arms supplier.

They agreed on the location of a new Russian nuclear energy plant in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. “Our membership of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), East Asia Summit, G20 and now Shanghai Cooperation Organisation gives our partnership a global character”, the prime minister said.

Indian firm Reliance Defence Limited said Thursday it had chose to work with the manufacturer of the S-400 “on the entire range of Air Defence Missile and Radar Systems” that India needs.

On his part, President Putin said that high technology, innovation, energy, aircraft building, pharmaceuticals and diamonds are promising areas for India-Russian cooperation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday invited Russian businesses to become India’s partner in prosperity.

At the summit, Modi and Putin pushed for early conclusion of a cultural exchange programme from 2016-2018 and chose to intensify cultural cooperation between academic and research organizations of the two countries. The two countries have also committed to raising bilateral trade from $10 billion a year to $30 billion inside a decade. You are the architect of the India-Russia strategic partnership.

Around 19 Indian CEOs have travelled with Modi for this meeting. Like leaders of other nations in the world like the EU, ASEAN and even countries in our neighborhood leaders of India and Pakistan too needed to inject informality in their relations. The capabilities of the Centre to monitor threats to human life and property, including natural disasters, both within and beyond Russia’s borders, and its global sphere of cooperation were highlighted.

The fresh round of sanction prevents some of the Russian largest companies from raising capital in the West, restrict technological exports and technical services for oil and gas drilling, and freeze travel and assets Russian elites.