The Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and his Indian counterpart Manohar Parrikar agreed to strengthen cooperation in the field of countering terrorism, as well as cooperation in the military-industrial sector.
During the official visit of Shoigu to India Russian and Indian ministers discussed the prospects of development of relations in the defense sector. Shoigu said that Russia and India condemned not only the manifestations of terrorism, but also the policy of double standards in countering this phenomenon.
The Russian Minister stressed that the countries had built a close industrial cooperation in the field of defense industry. “In the long term we plan to create a multipurpose transport plane, a fifth generation fight plane, a number of projects in the naval field” – Shoigu said. The plan of strengthening Russian-Indian cooperation for the next decade providing for military and military-technical cooperation was approved during the visit of Vladimir Putin to India in December 2014.
Sergei Shoigu noted that Moscow was ready to extend cooperation with India. Currently Moscow and New Delhi maintain military-technical cooperation in several areas, the most promising of them being the development of a fifth generation fight plane FGFA based on the Russian T-50 aircraft created by the advanced frontline aircraft system program, as well as the creation of a medium transport aircraft (multi-purpose transport aircraft).
In addition, the cooperation continues in the framework of the program of serial production and modernization of Su-30MKI fight planes for the Indian Air Forces, as well as in some directions of development of the Indian Navy, including the supply of nuclear submarines.
Author: Anna Dorozhkina