Russian President Dmitri Medvedev paid his maiden 3-day visit to India from 4th December 2008. India welcomed Dmitry Medvedev to a ceremonial reception at the Rashtrapathi Bhavan, the Presidential palace. A 21 gun salute was fired when Medvedev’s motorcade arrived at the square, where the honour guard and mounted presidential regiment guards, in bright red uniform lined up. A military orchestra played the Russian national anthem. The Russian President inspected the honour guard, and together with the Indian President and Prime Minister, he greeted the delegations of the two countries. After the welcome ceremony, Medvedev’s motorcade drove to Raj Ghat, where the Russian President paid tributes to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi.

The Russian President’s visit came immediately in the wake of Mumbai terror attack, and Russia did not cancel the visit on security grounds. This was a display of solidarity by Russia to India when the nation was shocked by a terror attack in its financial capital of Mumbai.

Nuclear Business

The high point of the visit was the agreement allowing Russia to build four more nuclear reactors in Tamil Nadu. Russia is already building two 1,000-megawatt light water nuclear reactors at Kudankulam and the path to nuclear cooperation has become smoother after the Nuclear Supplier Group (NSG) lifted the ban on India in September and permitted it for nuclear trade. After that India has signed nuclear cooperation pacts with France and the United States. Prior to the NSG waiver, Russia was the only foreign state present in India’s nuclear industry.

Alluding to those long-standing nuclear ties, the Russian President said in an interview with India’s state run television channel Doordarshan, “We think that during my visit, this area will make its biggest progress yet”.

Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh in his joint press conference with Medvedev said, “The signing of the agreement on civil nuclear cooperation with Russia marks a new milestone in the history of our cooperation with Russia in the field of nuclear energy”.

The two leaders also discussed ways to resolve the “outstanding issues” which are holding up transfer of aircraft carrier Gorshkov and nuclear-powered submarines to India.

On the business side also relations are surging. The two countries have been increasing trade volume by 30 percent each year and the target for 2010 is US$10 billion.

Defence Ties

Russia has concerns about the rising competition in India’s defence hardware market where it enjoys a 70 percent market share. In a television interview, the President noted that the current defence cooperation was “not enough”. He stressed the need to have more sophisticated projects such as the Brahmos anti-ship cruise missile, jointly developed by the two countries. The President wanted defence trade between the two nations to go beyond the usual “buy and sell” paradigm and turn into a full-fledged bilateral engagement.

Among the 10 agreements signed, special mention must be made of pacts on Construction of Nuclear Power Plants; Cooperation in India’s Human Space Flight Programme; Joint Action Plan to Combat International Terrorism and Contract for Supply of 80xMI-17 Helicopters. Russia would sell 80 Mi-17 multi-purpose helicopters worth around US$1.5 billion over the next two to three years. India’s defence ministry and Rosoboronexport signed the deal.

It was his predecessor Putin who played a crucial role in reclaiming India as a strategic partner, after the decline in enthusiasm in Indo-Russia relations witnessed during the Yeltsin era. Under Putin, the world also saw an assertive and resurgent Russia placing the Russia-India Strategic Partnership in an active mode.