The Russian President’s recent India visit strengthened decades old strategic partnership between the two countries

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was the last head of the state among the five permanent member countries of the UN Security Council to visit India in 2010. But he seemed to be the foremost among all to grab a major chunk of the country’s booming defence market, besides strengthening cultural ties, and cooperation in nuclear and pharmaceutical sectors.

A Cold War ally and a long time strategic partner for decades, Soviet Union (now Russia) has been a major arms supplier to India, but of late the country has been facing competition from the US and Europe. Medvedev’s visit gave a boost to the waning Indo-Russian ties. Both nations agreed to double bilateral trade by 2015. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described Russia as a “time-tested friend...that has stood by us in our times of need in the past”. “It is a partnership that has, and will continue, to develop independently of our relations with other countries,” he said. Prime Minister Singh and Medvedev reviewed the progress made in bilateral scientific and technological cooperation and expressed satisfaction at the extension of the integrated long-term programme (ILTP) for scientific and technical cooperation for another decade and its focus on identifying innovation-led technology programmes.

Delhi and Moscow signed an agreement for the design and development of fifth generation fighter aircraft (FGFA), 250-300 of which will be acquired by the IAF over 10 years worth up to $35 billion (Rs. 1,57,500 crore). According to the agreement, India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and Russia’s Rosoboronexport and Sukhoi will work together to begin delivery of an Indian version of the Russian aircraft by 2017. Both countries signed a deal to share high-precision signals from the global navigation satellite system (GLONASS) for defence as well as civilian use and agreed to a protocol to ensure uninterrupted supplies of BrahMos cruise missiles to Indian armed forces. As per the agreement, Russia will provide access to the GLONASS highprecision navigation signals to India.