NEW DELHI, 4 December 2004 — Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin held wide-ranging discussions yesterday with focus on transforming bilateral relations from a “declaratory to a pragmatic phase.”
“Together we are fully satisfied with the discussions. We are appreciative of Russia’s sustained support for India’s case for permanent membership of the UN Security Council. We also had a useful review of the situation in our neighborhood, especially in Afghanistan and Iraq. In all these matters there were close similarity of views,” Manmohan said while addressing a joint press conference with Putin after their talks.
Declaring that Indo-Russian partnership is not influenced by any circumstances, Putin said that decisions taken yesterday would further strengthen relations between the two countries.
The discussions between the two leaders also covered peaceful cooperation in nuclear energy.
Leading a 70-member delegation, Putin, accompanied by his wife Lyudmilla, arrived here early yesterday on a three-day visit.
After the talks, the two sides signed a joint declaration and agreed to finalize an accord on intellectual property rights in respect of all future supply of defense equipment.
“We have agreed that this matter (intellectual property rights) should be resolved in the next four months beginning January. The IPR will be respected with regard to all future supplies of equipment,” Manmohan said.
The existing agreements will run through their course, the prime minister added.
Supporting Russia’s early entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), India expressed the hope that there would be early conclusion of bilateral negotiations on this subject.
The two sides also discussed joint ventures in many areas.
On the supply of defense spares, a problem faced by India since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Manmohan said that it had been resolved.
Manmohan said the relationship between the two countries extended beyond the buyer-seller cooperation into areas of research and development and joint production.
Aside from the joint declaration, India and Russia signed accords on outer space, long-term cooperation in the field of joint development and use of Russian Global Navigational System (GLONASS) for peaceful purposes. They also inked pacts on visa-free travel for holders of diplomatic and official passports and cooperation between the cities of Bombay and St. Petersburg.
After inaugurating the Brahmos Joint Venture Complex at the Brahmos Aerospace in Delhi Cantonment on Saturday afternoon, Putin will leave for Bangalore. Interest in information technology takes Putin to India’s high-tech capital Bangalore for a day to visit the software firms there.
