Putin vows to build strategic ties

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW, OCT. 19. The Russian President, Mr. Vladimir Putin, has vowed to give flesh and blood to the strategic partnership with India he sealed during his visit to India earlier this month.

``The Russian side firmly intends to work for the strategic partnership declared by us in Delhi to become a real creative force oriented towards building a just and balanced system of international relations,'' the Russian leader said in a message of thanks to the President, Mr. K.R. Narayanan, and the Prime Minister, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, who had congratulated him on his 48th birthday last week.

In a follow-up to agreements reached during Mr. Putin's talks in Delhi, Russian and Indian defence officials are finalising a number of major deals.

A Russian military delegation would visit India next week to give final touches to a licence accord for the manufacture of the SU- 30MKI fighter jets at the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL), the RIA-Novosti news agency reported on Thursday.

The delegation would visit the HAL factories in Bangalore, Nasik and Sunabed, where the planes would be built.

Russian experts would review progress in installing new facilities at the HAL for scheduled launching of SU-30MKI production in 2004, it said.

Under two contracts signed in 1996 and 1998, India purchased 50 SU-30 fighters with an option to manufacture another 140 domestically.

India was also close to signing another major defence deal with Russia for the purchase of 310 T-90S main battle tanks, a senior Government official said here.

The Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Ilya Klebanov, announced on Wednesday that the T-90 contract, under which Russia would deliver 124 fully assembled tanks and another 186 in knocked-down state, would be signed in early November.

Sources in the Russian Defence Ministry told a news agency that India and Russia had also begun talks on converting the Admiral Gorshkov aviation cruiser into an aircraft carrier in keeping with another agreement signed during Mr. Putin's visit.

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Section  : International
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