Russian President Putin visits India to promote economic relations

Indian media on December 10 published an interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin ahead of his visit to India and participation in the 15th annual summit with host country Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 11.

In an interview with PTI news agency and The Hindustan Times, Russian President Putin emphasized the priority strategic partnership with India and said that during his visit, in addition to military and technological cooperation, the issue of building new nuclear power plants is a high priority on his agenda in New Delhi.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (Source: Corbis)

President Putin made it clear that, in addition to building new units of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (NPP) in Tamil Nadu, Russia is waiting for the Indian Government's decision to prepare a site for a new nuclear power plant of Russian design. The general framework agreement was signed in Mumbai in April 2014 and the two sides will discuss this issue at a meeting on December 11.

According to the Hindustan Times, the two sides also focused on expanding trade and economic relations and promoting bilateral investment. Russian President Putin noted that the potential for economic and trade cooperation between the two countries is huge, although two-way trade has decreased, reaching only 10 billion USD in 2013. From 2000 to 2014, India invested more than 8 billion USD in Russia and Russia invested 3.6 billion USD in India. Russia hopes that Indian companies will invest in Russian "industrial parks" in the coming years. Russian companies are also interested in the fields of automobile manufacturing, mining, defense, railways, agriculture, food processing industry and the Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor.

In the context of India's efforts to reach a free trade agreement with the Customs Union of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus, Russian President Putin's visit is also an opportunity for the two sides to discuss and agree on the details and implementation of the agreement.

With the desire to maintain the role of a reliable energy supplier for Asia, Russian President Putin specifically mentioned the issue of Russia-India energy cooperation. Russia will start exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) to India in early 2017 under a 2012 agreement, and also wants India's oil and gas company ONGC Videsh to participate in oil and gas exploration in the Arctic.

Regarding defense cooperation, Russian President Putin stressed the special importance of strengthening military and technological cooperation - one of the key elements of the Russia-India Strategic Partnership. The two sides will discuss in detail the current projects, not only related to the export of ready-made equipment, but also close cooperation in technology and manufacturing industry. Russian President Putin said that "the two sides are gradually shifting from the producer-consumer model to the form of joint development and production of modern weapons systems."

During his visit to India, he wants to look for concrete measures to strengthen the priority strategic partnership between the two countries, including plans to promote the introduction of Russia's Sukhoi Superjet-100 and MS-21 passenger aircraft to the Indian market. In addition, the two sides will cooperate in manufacturing helicopters and building "smart cities" using Russian technology./.

According to VNA