Indian Foreign Minister Believes That Military and Technological Cooperation with Russia has a Great Potential

On Thursday, Indian Foreign Minister Jashwant Sinha, speaking about the results of the talks with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, stated that Russian-Indian military and technological cooperation (MTC) has a great potential.

According to Mr. Sinha, Moscow and New Delhi "have already transformed the MTC into exchange of research and manufacturing technologies." "Earlier in history, the relations between our countries were based on the buyer-seller principle, but today we are working on a lot of joint research projects," said Mr. Sinha. He asserted that Moscow and New Delhi will continue to raise the level of the MTC in the future." In his turn, the Russian Foreign Minister also confirmed that Moscow intended to further develop its ties with India in the sphere of military and technological cooperation.

Speaking of other forms of cooperation, Mr. Ivanov emphasized Russian-Indian ties in trade and economic spheres and called for the necessity "to bring them to the level of political relations between the two countries, which is presently very high." "Russian and Indian governments will provide comprehensive support to the entrepreneurs in both countries in all business spheres, including bilateral investment projects," stated the Russian Foreign Minister.

In addition, Mr. Ivanov said, the governments of Russia and India are preparing to sign the program of cultural cooperation between the two countries for the coming several years.