Two defence deals to be signed during PM's Moscow visit

India and Russia would be signing two deals to further strengthen bilateral defence cooperation during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Moscow later this year, the defence ministry said.

India and Russia would be signing two deals to further strengthen bilateral defence cooperation during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Moscow later this year, the defence ministry said on Thursday.

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The first agreement would be on extending the military technical cooperation for ten years from 2011 to 2020 and the second relates to after-sales product support for defence equipment of Russian origin.

"Two major agreements to boost defence cooperation between India and Russia are likely to be signed during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Moscow later this year. Decks for the signing of the two agreements were cleared today (Thursday) during the ongoing visit of Defence Minister A K Antony to Moscow," a defence ministry statement said.

The outlines for the two agreements were hammered out during the 9th Meeting of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Military Technical Cooperation (IRIGC-MTC) which concluded in Moscow on Thursday.

Antony and his Russian counterpart Anatoly Serdyukov presided over the meeting.