Prime Minister Narendra Modi will embark on a two-day visit to Russia on Wednesday for annual summit talks aimed at further expanding the defence ties by signing $1 billion agreement to produce military helicopters in India and focus on nuclear energy, hydrocarbons and trade.
Determined to unveil mystery of the disappearance of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is set to seek cooperation of Russian President Vladimir Putin to request access to secret Russian files to probe the missing link. Many authors have alleged that under the instructions of India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Russian dictator Jospeh Stalin had confined Bose in Siberia's Yakutsk city, some 6,000km away from Moscow and he could have been buried there.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will embark on a two-day visit to Russia on Wednesday for annual summit talks aimed at further expanding the defence ties by signing $1 billion agreement to produce military helicopters in India and focus on nuclear energy, hydrocarbons and trade.
The two events, Modi has specifically included in his itinerary, are a detailed briefing at Emercom, Russia's emergency response agency during disasters, to get an overview of tackling natural catastrophe, so frequent in India over past few years.
The Emercom is world famous dynamic force, known in the field of humanitarian response and emergency relief operations. Further, while there is no significant Indian community in Moscow, to recreate the aura of New York's Madison Square Garden, UK's Wembly or Dubai's cricket stadium buzz, ministry of external affairs has identified 3,000 Russians, whom they describe, 'friends of India' to listen to the Prime Minister at the Moscow exhibition ground.
Weary about Russia warming up and even having agreed to supply military equipment to Pakistan, officials said the summit will provide an opportunity to both countries to look at regional and global issues. Russian ambassador in India few months ago had publicly expressed concern at India's growing closeness with the United States and switching to alternative defence markets. But the foreign secretary S. Jaishankar said the envoy's comments were in a context. "If the Russian ambassador does not promote Russian aircraft, whose aircraft he will promote? He is doing his job," he said.
Major challenge between the two countries is that despite being all-weather friends, trade has remained limited. Foreign Secretary said expanding economic ties would be a 'very big priority' Energy-starved India, the third largest oil importer after the United States and China, has been pushing for greater involvement in major gas and oil exploration projects in Russia. India is also likely to push for a Free Trade Agreement with the Eurasian Economic Zone and is sharing details of the study it conducted in this regard.
Last week, the 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. It will be Modi's second summit with Putin who was in India last year for the 15th India Russia Summit.
On Wednesday, Putin will host a private dinner for the prime minister and the two leaders will interact with a group of Indian and Russian chief executive officers in Kremlin on Thursday.
After the summit talks last year, it was announced that Russia will build at least 12 nuclear reactors besides manufacturing advanced dual-use helicopters. The two countries had signed 20 agreements in oil, gas, defence, investment and other key sectors.
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