India-Russia Deal on Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft

President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev visited India on 21-22 December 2010, to participate in the 10th Annual Summit meeting under the India Russia Strategic Partnership. India and Russia signed a total of 30 agreements in the areas of defence, power, atomic energy, oil and Trade,visa procedures, etc. during this visit. The agreement in the field of defence was the most important one under which India and Russia signed a deal on jointly designing and developing the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) for the Indian Air Force. India and Russia had signed the declaration on India-Russia Strategic Partnership on 3 October 2000, in New Delhi.

India-Russia Deal on Fighter Aircraft and GLONASS
India-Russia deal on Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft worth of 30 billion US dollars was considered the biggest ever defence deal ever in the history of India. The deal on FGFA was signed between Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) of India and Rosoboronexport , Sukhoi of Russia. As per the deal on FGFA, the new generation fighter aircraft will be equipped with features like stealth, high-technology avionics and ultra manoeuvrability. The deal also covered joint marketing of the aircraft to third-world countries. Indian Air Force is expected to induct these new generation fighter aircrafts by 2017. The fifth generation aircraft for the Indian air force was named as the Perspective Multi-Role Fighter (PMF). PMF is based upon the FGFA technology of Russia. PMF can compete with US F 22 Raptor, the only fifth generation fighter aircraft in service.

Besides the above deal, Russia also agreed to provide India high precision navigation signals from its Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) for defence as well as civilian use. GLONASS is the Russian equivalent of USA’s global positioning system, which can determine the exact position of any object within its range. This agreement made military grade signals from the global positioning system accessible to the Indian military for the first time. At present, Russia has 26 GLONASS, out of them 23 are in use.

India-Russia Cooperation in Oil and Gas Sector
In addition to defence deal, India and Russia also agreed to increase cooperation in the sector of oil and gas. The agreement is likely to facilitate joint undertaking of projects in India, Russia and third world countries by the oil and gas companies from both the nations.

India-Russia MoU in Power Sector
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between NMDC Ltd. and OJSC Severstal to set up the 50:50 joint venture for an integrated steel plant in Karnataka with a captive coal mining concession in Russia and iron ore mining concession in India.

Other Important India-Russia Agreements
Moreover, India and Russia signed important agreements on people to people contacts and hydrocarbon sector. It was agreed to make it easier the exchange of visits for certain categories of nationals from both sides by simplifying the travel documents. The agreement on hydrocarbon sector was signed between ONGC Videsh Ltd. of India and JSFC Sistema of Russia. India and Russia also agreed to establish the Indian-Russian Scientific and Technological Centre. Besides, Memorandum of understanding was signed between the state Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom and the Department of Atomic Energy of India on scientific and technical cooperation.

In addition, India and Russia also signed several agreements on trade and banking, IT and Communications, chemicals and petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals and biopharmaceuticals. The major agreement in IT and Communication sector is on GLONASS High Precision signal access to India provided by Russia. In the sector of Chemicals and Petrochemicals, the Joint venture agreement was signed between Reliance and Sibur (a subsidiary of Gazprom) to set up a butyl rubber manufacturing facility in India at Jamnagar. In banking sector, the official representative office of OSJC Gazprombank was opened in India to strengthen banking association between India and Russia.

Key Features of India-Russia Joint Statement
•India and Russia agreed to achieve the target of bilateral trade volume of 20 billion US dollars by 2015. Both nations also agreed to step up the effort for CECA (Comprehensive Economic Agreement) between them.
•India and Russia agreed to intensify cooperation in the space sector which covered projects on the lunar exploration, human space flight and Youth Sat projects.
•Russia supported India’s candidature for a permanent seat in an expanded UN Security Council.
•India and Russia agreed on Promoting Nuclear disarmament and Nuclear Non-Proliferation Efforts.
•The Russian Federation agreed to make efforts along with other member countries of SCO (Shanghai Corporation Organisation) members to speed up the process of India's entry into the organisation.
•Russia supported India’s bid to join the APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Corporation).
•India and Russia reiterated that Iranian nuclear issue should be resolved through dialogue and Iran has the right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. India and Russia called on Iran to comply with the provisions of UN Security Council resolutions and fully cooperate with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Association).
•India and Russia agreed that it is necessary for G20 countries to implement the Seoul Action Plan adopted at the G 20 summit at Seoul. Both nations reiterated their commitment to the reform of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as agreed at the G-20 summit at Seoul.
•India and Russia underscored the importance of increasing the efforts at the world level to deal with the problem of climate change under the UN (United Nations) Framework Convention on Climate Change.
•India and Russia expressed concern over the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan. Both nations emphasized the importance of the International Security Assistance Force in combating the production and trafficking of illegal narcotics in Afghanistan.
•India and Russia condemned terrorism in its all forms and called on Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks to justice.

India and Russia as Strategic Partners
India needs help from Russia in the sectors of defence, Energy, science and space technology while Russia needs India as a market to sell its arms and ammunitions as well as infrastructure related communities. Besides, Russia can play a crucial role not only for India’s permanent membership in UN Security Council but in other organizations like APEC and SCO as well.