Putin talks business in New Delhi

There will be four pillars of mutual interest for these talks – energy, defense, trade and geo-politics.

The agreements due to be signed are an umbrella civil nuclear pact, a deal on supplying Gorshkov aircraft to India, a deal on developing a fifth-generation fighter and universal transport aircraft, a deal for MIG fighters, and a simplified visa agreement – among other issues.

Russia’s record in providing sophisticated arms and platforms for India is widely praised in the country. Russia is actually the only military supplier from whom India gets high-tech equipment, unavailable from anywhere else, like nuclear powered submarines.

In the nuclear sector, apart from currently building two reactors, Russia is going to build four more in the same area of India.

The visit is also set to boost bilateral trade. At the moment it stands at the point of $8 billion, which is actually well short of its potential. This potential – as well as other topics – was the focus today of a live Internet chat between the Russian prime minister and Indians, who were addressing their questions and perhaps suggestions during the internet conference.

The reactions to the Russian Prime Minister in the Indian press are very welcoming and positive. Today’s newspapers headlines have led with this topic. The biggest newspaper of India, the Hindustan Times, today carries an article by former foreign secretary of India, Kanwal Sibal. It states “At the political level, India and Russia believe in a multipolar world and a rule-based international order. They are opposed to international terrorism and religious extremists.”

“A resurgent Russia is necessary for maintaining a desired level of equilibrium at the global level,” continues the article. “Any form of a US-China diarchy would be at the expense, in particular, of large and autonomous countries like India and Russia.”

Russia and India are like spiritual brothers

The Indian market is probably the only one that is continuing to expand rapidly at the time of the global financial crunch and the Russian share in it is also growing, while other partners of India are losing their niches, Ruslan Pukhov, an expert from the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technology, told RT.

The long lasting question of Russia supplying India an air carrier, Admiral Gorshkov, now appears to have been solved and the final deal on it is to be signed, which means that despite the delay, India is “generally satisfied” with the deal, said the observer, who also remarked that there is no such thing as an “air carrier market”, so re-calculation of the price and, therefore, the delay of the project is quite understandable.

“India is probably the most comfortable partner for Russia in terms of geopolitics and economy. We share the same values, we have more or less the same internal threats like Islamic fundamentalism, we also have very good historic background,” Pukhov pointed out.