Putin to sign big deals on short visit

Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin will have a whirlwind visit of India on Friday.

After day-long talks, he will have dinner with prime minister Manmohan Singh and will straightaway drive to the airport to fly away in a special aircraft.

Though it will be just a day’s visit, Putin will be warmly welcomed as an old and trusted friend of India. A strategic partnership between the two countries was signed in 2000 when Putin was the president.

Much of the post-Cold War irritants between the two countries have centered round defence supplies. Negotiations over aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov went on for more than a decade.

India and Russia is expected to sign several defence and space agreements on Friday. Among them will be the new price for refit of aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, agreement for making a new multi-role transport aircraft, and purchase of 29 more MIG-29K fighters for the navy.

India had agreed to pay $974 million for Admiral Gorshkov in 2004. It will now pay $2.34 billion. The MIG-29K deal is expected to cost $1.2 billion. The third military contract worth $600.7 million would be between the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation for developing a multi-role transport aircraft.

Besides, the two sides are hoping to finalise the text of an agreement between the Indian Space Research Organisation and its Russian counterpart Roskosmos for sharing civilian signals
from Glonass, the Russian GPS network.

India had, in the past, officially committed to be a partner of Russia, but failed to keep up with its side of the bargain to launch Glonass satellites. However, sources said, the proposed agreement would also give conditional access to India to the military signals of the satellite network.

The situation in Afghanistan will be high on the agenda when Singh and Putin hold talks. Russia has consistently supported India’s civil nuclear programme. First reactor of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant will be launched this year with Russian help.

Site for a new plant allotted by India is in Haripur in West Bengal. Land acquisition is expected to delay the project. Moscow has asked the government to make sure that it gets all the clearances beforehand.