Indian Min Visits Moscow To Discuss New Weapons Contracts

 
IL Serge Pod #05.07.2001 22:35
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Serge Pod

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Monday June 4, 2:31 PM

Indian Min Visits Moscow To Discuss New Weapons Contracts

MOSCOW (AP)--Visiting Indian Foreign and Defense Minister Jaswant Singh held talks Monday with Russian officials on prospective deals on arms ranging from ground weapons to aircraft to Navy ships.
Singh, who arrived in Moscow late Sunday, met with Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov. They co-chaired a session of the Russian-Indian commission on military technical cooperation.

Klebanov wouldn't name the types of weapons New Delhi wants to purchase, but said they would equip India's air defense, air force, navy and ground forces, the Interfax news agency reported.

Since Soviet times, India has been one of the largest customers of Russian weapons, which make up about 70% of New Delhi's arsenals. It is vying for first place in Russian arms purchases with China, buying about one-third of Russian arms exports, which totaled nearly $4 billion last year.

Russian and Indian officials reached agreement on a series of prospective arms deals when Russian President Vladimir Putin visited India in October. Contracts have already been signed on some of them, including a $3 billion license deal for India to manufacture 140 Su-30 MKI fighter jets and the delivery of 310 T-90 tanks, priced at around $1 billion.

Among prospective contracts to be signed are a deal on the delivery of the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier, complete with a fleet of several dozen MiG-29K fighter planes, and an agreement on leasing four Russian Tu-22 M3 Backfire bombers - long-range, supersonic aircraft that U.S. arms negotiators during the Cold War considered a strategic weapon.

Russian media reports have said that Russia is also considering India as a prospective partner in the development of a new-generation fighter that could enter service after 2010. Russia is short of funds to develop the costly project alone, and Russian Aerospace Agency chief Yuri Koptev said last month said it would consider pooling efforts with an unidentified foreign country.

Klebanov said Sunday that the two countries had already "reached significant progress" on the issue of joint development of new weapons.
In knowledge we trust!  

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