Since the Soviet era, India and Russia have been linked closely in bilateral trade, economy, and other areas of cooperation. Over the last few years, the age-old relationships between the two countries have been tightened up through exchange of several high-level visits. In continuation of the tradition of holding annual summits between heads of government, which started seven years ago, Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh paid a two-day visit to Russia on 11-12 November 2007.

The visit of the Indian leader took place after the two sides had made considerable bilateral efforts in the fields of space and cutting edge technologies, setting up of an atomic power plant complex in Tamil Nadu as well as joint development of the next generation fighter aircraft.

Dr Singh and his Russian counterpart President Vladimir Putin signed four agreements resolving long-pending issues relating Rupee-Rouble trade, prevention of drug trafficking, and the multi-role transport aircraft (MTA). “I am happy that we have been able to satisfactorily resolve the long-pending issue of the utilisation of the rupee debt fund. We also agreed to redouble our efforts to achieve a bilateral trade target of US$10 billion by 2010”, said Dr Singh.

Putin’s Visit

Following the ‘protocol of intent’ signed during Putin’s landmark visit as a chief guest on Indian Republic Day in early 2007, the two leaders firmed up Russia’s provision to build four additional power reactors at the Kundankulam plant in Tamil Nadu. The project will mark a new chapter for India grapping with the Indo-US civil nuclear deal that aimed at re-opening doors of global nuclear commerce for the country.

Chandrayan II

High technology is an area of great promise in cooperation between the two nations. The agreement on Chandrayan II includes a joint mission to the moon involving an orbit, a lander, and a rover to carry out scientific studies. Defence cooperation was one of the steadfast resolutions taken by the two leaders at the summit. Both sides decided for co-development and co-production of the Fifth Generation Fighter and the Multi-role Transport Aircraft as major steps forward.

India in Russia

With an objective to showcase new India in Russia and new Russia in India, both sides enthusiastically prepared to organise ‘Year of Russia in India’ in 2008 and ‘Year of India in Russia’ in 2009. For new regional cooperation on cultural exchange as well as people-to-people relations, Dr Singh invited President Putin and Prime Minister Zubkov to visit India next year. Dr Singh stated that India-Russia multifaceted bilateral cooperation is based on long term interest. “The year 2007 is the 60th year of the establishment of Indo-Russian diplomatic relations. As we rejoice in our joint accomplishments during the six decades of unbroken friendship, we also stand committed to further deepen our partnership in the fields of trade and investment, defence, energy security, science and technology, space, and other areas of mutual benefits,” Dr Singh stated.

Kudankulam Plant

Amidst all the pros and cons of the Kudankulam nuclear plant, Russia is quite confident of selling the project to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The country arguably reasoned that the project is an extension of its earlier project of building two power reactors of 1,000 MW. Following the hurdles in the Indo-US nuclear deal, Russia became one of the first few countries that promised support for India in the powerful Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

Following the 1988 agreement and addendum signed between India and the then Soviet Union, the nuclear power equipment and service export monopoly Atomstroyexport of Russia has been building the Kudankulam plant in Tamil Nadu since 2002. The plant is designed to have a capacity of 2,000 MW.

Though India is one of the world’s eight confirmed nuclear powers, the country has never been party to the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and faced US, Japanese, and European sanctions since 1998. The Kudankulam nuclear project is estimated to cost around Rs 11,000 crore (US$2.8 billion).

National Security Advisor MK Narayanan stated that the original agreement signed in 1998 to build two nuclear reactors with Russian assistance was not a general agreement where there could be four more reactors. In addition, Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon said that Russia had agreed to support India at the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group that has to make amendments by consensus to facilitate the international community’s nuclear trade with India.

Energy Security

“Energy security is the most important of the emerging dimensions of our strategic partnership”, Dr Singh said at the summit. Appreciating Russian position as a global leader on energy issues, the Indian leader thanked the partner country for its support in lifting international restrictions on nuclear cooperation and assisting India in expansion of her nuclear energy programme, “We continued our dialogue on energy. I thanked Russian President’s steadfast support in supplementing our nuclear energy programme.”

Arms Delivery

Apart from the nuclear deals, the two nations took up the issue of Russia’s arms delivery and cost escalation. India’s defence establishment is banking on Russia for over 50 percent of military weapons.

Prior to the Prime Minister’s maiden visit, Indian Defence Minister AK Antony and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee visited Moscow in addition to several delegations of officials and scientists from various departments to touch on these issues. Describing his successful visit to Moscow, Antony stated Russia would remain as India’s old friend for the sake of new ideas, though the latter has made links with several weapons outsourcing countries in the world.

During his talk with his Russian counterpart President Putin, Dr Singh brought the issues relating to the defence deals. Despite the emergence of the US and Israel as important suppliers of military hardware of India, Dr Singh assured President Putin that Russia will remain ‘India’s most important partner in defence cooperation.’

The most important message the Indian leader carried to Moscow was his country’s enduring commitment to expanding its multi-faceted ties with Russia despite its engagement with other major powers of the world. Talking to Ria Novosti, Dr Singh said, “Our time-tested relationship is based on deep mutual trust and understanding.”