PM to sign deal for extending military cooperation with Russia

With an aim to extend their military and technical cooperation till 2020, India and Russia will sign an inter-governmental agreement during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Moscow this December.

With an aim to extend their military and technical cooperation till 2020, India and Russia will sign an inter-governmental agreement during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Moscow this December.

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A broad protocol for continuing with the Inter-Governmental Commission for Military and Technical Cooperation (IGC-MTC) was agreed to during Defence Minister A K Antony's three-day visit to Russia that ended today.

The 10-year IGC-MTC, which was signed in 1998, began in 2000 and will come to an end in 2010. The protocol signed by Antony and his Russian counterpart Anatoly Serdyukov today was for extension of the IGC-MTC till 2020, an agreement for which would be signed during Singh's visit, Defence Ministry officials said here.

The two-day ninth IGC-MTC meeting, co-chaired by Serdyukov, which began in Moscow yesterday was attended by Antony.

"A protocol highlighting the various aspects of these projects was signed at the conclusion of the two-day IGC-MTC meeting. Both sides reiterated the commitment of the two governments to extend the ongoing programme of military technical cooperation for a further ten years, from 2011 to 2020," officials added.

Singh is visiting Moscow in December to attend the India-Russia Summit, the officials said.