Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (L) participates in an Internet conference with Indian citizens
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (L) participates in an Internet conference with Indian citizens
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (L) shakes hands with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Ivanov (L) talks with Indian Defence Minister A.K. Anthony
Putin was to sign more than a dozen arms and energy pacts worth around 10 billion dollars with India
Energy is emerging as a focus between oil and gas-rich Russia and energy-starved India
India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (R) speaks with Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin during a joint news conference in New Delhi March 12, 2010.
Russia will build more than 1,000 stealth fighter jets within four decades, including at least 200 for its traditional weapons buyer India, the head of plane maker Sukhoi said on Friday.
Sukhoi test-flew its long-delayed fifth-generation fighter at the end of January, and Moscow said it would be able to compete with its U.S. F-22 Raptor rival built more than a decade ago.
Sukhoi said last week it hoped the fighter, codenamed T-50, would be ready for use in 2015.
"If you talk about warplanes of this type, there is definitely a market for it if we produce more than 1,000 jets," Sukhoi director Mikhail Pogosyan told reporters on the sidelines of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's visit to India.
"We have all grounds to believe that there will not be tough competition on the world market," he said.
He said Russia would produce more than 1,000 of the planes within 35 to 40 years.
After the test flight, Putin said Russia had plenty of work to do on the plane.
Analysts say Russia's plans for a joint venture with India to produce the stealth fighters will likely be watched with unease by India's uneasy neighbour Pakistan and regional rival China.
Pogosyan said an agreement on joint output of the jet with India was still in the works and did not say when a deal might be signed.
"I believe that more than 200 planes will be delivered (to India)," Pogosyan said.
"I think (Russia's) defence ministry will buy no less than this amount," he said. About 600 of the planes would be sold elsewhere, he said.
Analysts say several nations, including Libya and Vietnam, have already expressed interest in the fifth-generation fighter.
"Apart from America, the only other fifth-generation project is Russia's, while the Europeans have given up such plans," Pogosyan said.
"Probably the Chinese will try and promote such a product, but I think they face an immense amount of work to make their product competitive," he said.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, in India to sign a clutch of multibillion-dollar arms deals, said Friday it was time for the old Cold War allies to boost trade beyond the limited scope of defence.
At just over 7.5 billion dollars in 2009, bilateral trade turnover is minuscule and the two countries aim to lift it to 20 billion dollars by 2015.
"There is the political will on both sides, but we need support from the captains of industry," Putin said during a live webcast with leading Indian businessmen and cultural figures.
"We should think about the future," Putin said, stressing the need for commercial ties to move beyond arms sales -- Russia is India's biggest supplier -- into areas such as energy, banking and information technology.
"Cooperation in hi-tech is the priority for us," he said. "The Russian government is ready to directly support this activity, with the help of additional financial assistance, if need be."
According to Indian officials, energy is emerging as a focus between oil and gas-rich Russia and energy-starved India, always on the lookout for new fuel sources to power its growing economy.
Indian foreign ministry official Ajay Bisaria noted that New Delhi had invested 2.8 billion dollars in an oil field on Sakhalin island off Russia's east coast and was in talks with energy firms Rosneft and Gazprom for more blocks in north Russia.
"India has had an energy strategy of investing in equity in that region and this continues," Bisaria said.
Russia is expected to begin construction soon of a nuclear power facility in the eastern India state of West Bengal and Friday's visit is set to result in another deal for at least two reactors in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.
Russia is already building two reactors there.
"This is one of our most important and promising areas of cooperation," said Putin, who acknowledged growing competition to provide nuclear energy to India after it sealed a landmark deal with the United States in 2008.
The agreement allowed India access to civilian nuclear energy despite its refusal to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Putin was scheduled to meet his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh later Friday and sign more than a dozen arms and energy pacts worth around 10 billion dollars.
The deals include an accord to resolve the sale of a refitted Soviet-era aircraft carrier, the Admiral Gorshkov, as well as 29 MiG fighter jets.
The sale of the Admiral Gorshkov has been marred by a series of price disputes and delayed deliveries, fuelling concerns in Moscow that India could be tempted to end its dependence on Russian military equipment.
Putin's foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov said the new accord would "suit both sides" and help put the dispute behind them.
Russia supplies 70 percent of India's military hardware but in recent years New Delhi has looked to other suppliers including Israel and the United States.
The strong ties between Moscow and New Delhi date back to the 1950s after the death of Stalin. But India has in recent years also taken care to balance this friendship by fostering closer relations with Washington.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin sealed a visit to India Friday with a raft of multi-billion-dollar arms and energy deals, including the construction of 16 Russian nuclear reactors.
The two countries also signed agreements for the long-awaited sale to India of a refitted Soviet-era aircraft carrier as well as 29 MiG fighter jets, further cementing Moscow's role as New Delhi's principal arms provider.
Energy-hungry India is one of the world's biggest markets for nuclear technology and the reactor deal is a triumph for Russia's state atomic agency Rosatom which faces stiff competition from French and US rivals.
While welcoming the deals, Putin stressed that the two Cold War allies were still short of realising the potential of their partnership, one half of the powerful four-strong group of emerging nations that includes China and Brazil.
"The level of our capabilities has not been reached," he said following talks with Indian Premier Manmohan Singh.
Singh hailed the meeting with Russia -- a "trusted and reliable strategic partner" and a "pillar of our foreign policy" -- and pointed to the "rich and very substantive" agreements signed in nuclear energy, defence, space and other sectors.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said the reactor agreement covered the construction of "up to 16 nuclear energy units" at three Indian sites.
Earlier, Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of Russia's state atomic agency said six of the reactors would be built by 2017.
Two units are already under construction in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu and Russia won a deal to build four more in 2008. It was unclear if the 16 reactors referred to by Ivanov included these six.
The accord on the aircraft carrier, the Admiral Gorshkov, marks the end of a lengthy purchase process that was marred by a series of price disputes and delayed deliveries.
Ivanov said the ship would be delivered by the end of 2012. The final cost was not revealed, although experts believe it to be around 2.3 billion dollars.
Russia supplies 70 percent of India's military hardware but in recent years New Delhi has looked to other suppliers including Israel and the United States.
Mikhail Pogosyan, the general director of Russian plane maker Sukhoi as well as the unit that manufactures MiGs estimated the value of the MiG-29K fighter deal at around 1.5 billion dollars.
The strong ties between Moscow and New Delhi date back to the 1950s after the death of Stalin. But India has in recent years also taken care to balance this friendship by fostering closer relations with Washington.
In a live webcast interaction with Indian businessmen, Putin said it was time for the old Cold War allies to boost trade beyond the limited scope of defence.
At just over 7.5 billion dollars in 2009, bilateral trade turnover is miniscule and the two countries aim to lift it to 20 billion dollars by 2015.
"There is the political will on both sides, but we need support from the captains of industry," Putin said.
"Cooperation in hi-tech is the priority for us," he added. "The Russian government is ready to directly support this activity, with the help of additional financial assistance, if need be."
On security issues, Putin highlighted the presence of militant outfits operating along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, saying they were cause for concern not just to Russia and India but the entire region.
Putin also reassured that Russia had prioritised its military relations with India over rival Pakistan, with which New Delhi has fought three wars since 1947.
In the space realm, Russia agreed to help put an Indian into space in 2015 -- the target date for India's first manned space mission.
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