Military And Technical Cooperation Of Russia And India Yields Good Results

The cooperation of Russia and India in the military and technical field has yielded sizable results and has good prospects. Alexander Yakovenko, official spokesman for the Russian foreign policy agency, has made this statement to the Indian press in connection with the visit to Delhi by Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov. According to a RIA Novosti correspondent, the diplomat stressed that the actively developing military and technical cooperation (MTC) is a major component of the Russo-Indian strategic partnership. Yakovenko pointed out that the long-term Program of military and technical cooperation for a period until 2000 has been successfully fulfilled; the implementation of a new program for a period until 2010 has been commenced. Last year, the Russo-Indian intergovernmental MTC commission was set up, and it is expected that the commission will start doing its work in the near future. The Russian Foreign Ministry official spokesman noted, in particular, that the contents of this cooperation had also changed. Now, according to Yakovenko, MTC includes not only weapons and military hardware sales, but also joint projects -- for example, to establish production of certain types of weaponry under Russian licenses in India. "Today, we may confidently say that over the past years and decades Russia has proved to be a reliable partner in the sphere of military and technical cooperation, which is evidenced by the estimates of our Indian colleagues," concluded Yakovenko.