NEW DELHI — A week before US President Barack Obama's visit to New Delhi, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu held his first meeting with new Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar Wednesday, which included discussions on the co-production of the Kamov 226 light utility helicopter and resolving disagreements over the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft [FGFA].
Visiting Russian President Vladmir Putin offered co-production of the helicopter during his talks here Dec. 11 with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said an Indian Defence Ministry source.
However, the MoD's official The official release of the MoD, however, made no mention of possible the discussion on co-production, and only said, of Kamov 226 helicopter and said, "The two Defense Ministers also discussed possible future areas of cooperation in high technology Defense platforms as well as armament for the three Services. "
ShoiguSergei is here in New Delhi, to attend the 15th meeting of the Russian-Indian Inter-Governmental Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation. held December 21.
"Resolving the deadlock leading to the final agreement on the joint production of the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft [FGFA] the two countries propose to jointly develop was top on the agenda of the meeting," the MoD source added.
The official release made no mention of on the progress in the long pending issue of final agreement on FGFA effort, but said, "The two sides resolved to continue to meet at regular intervals to carry forward an already robust defense cooperation between the two countries."
Russian officials offered no public comment after the talks.
Despite an pPreliminary agreement on FGFA signed in 2010, a final agreement, essential for the release by India of about around $5.5 billion , the Indian share toward development of the aircraft, remains elusive. The final agreement would settle details concerning how much each side will contribute toward FGFA, is still not reached as the deadlock remainson the share of design and development of the each side will have in FGFA, for in which the Indian Air Force (IAF) is expected to place an order worth over $25 billion.
ShoiguSergei was scheduled to visit New Delhi in October but delayed his tripvisit due to what Russian diplomats here said were events occupation of the Defense Minister in events related to Ukraine.
However, ShoiguSergei visited Pakistan in November and signed a defense and military cooperation agreement on Nov.ember 20.
"Despite the deadlock over FGFA, and the defense cooperation agreement with Pakistan, defense ties with Moscow will remain intact because Russia offers high-technology weapon co-production projects to India," said Bhim Singh, retired Indian Air Force wing commander.
Email:vraghuvanshi@defensenews.com.
Vivek Raghuvanshi is the India correspondent for Defense News.
