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PM going to Russia |
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Prime Minister Vajpayee is going to Moscow on November 7 on a four-day visit, his first overseas trip since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. His visit will coincide with the anniversary of the “Great October Socialist Revolution”. From there, he will fly direct to the US to attend the UN General Assembly session in New York and also see President Bush at the White House in Washington.
Russian President Putin had paid a historic visit to India last October and Mr. Vajpayee’s visit will complement the understanding that both the leaders had then reached about holding the annual summit meetings to carry forward bilateral dialogue. During Mr. Putin’s visit the two countries signed Declaration of Strategic Partnership between the two countries. Besides imparting a new impulse and greater depth to Indo-Russian relations, the visit of Mr. Vajpayee is expected to focus on Afghanistan in the background of the current US military campaign and the formation of a new Government in Kabul after the fall of the Taliban. Both India and Russia have been in touch with each other over the developments and last week Mr. Vajpayee spoke to Mr. Putin on telephone while External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh and his Russian counterpart, Igor Ivanov also exchanged views on the subject on phone. The Russian deputy Prime Minister also came to India and the two countries held another session of their Joint Working Group on Afghanistan in New Delhi to review the latest situation. During talks, President Putin, who has just met President Bush in Shanghai on the sidelines of the APEC summit and from there directly flew to the Tajikistan capital, Dushanbe for talks with Tajik and Northern Alliance leaders, is expected to brief Mr. Vajpayee on his impressions about the goings-on in Afghanistan It may be recalled that although Russia has decided to fully support the American military campaign against the Taliban and even facilitated the support of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, considered to be Russia’s soft underbelly, to the US military action from the North, Moscow and New Delhi differ with Washington over the shape of the next Government in the Afghan capital. Because of the closeness of the Northern Alliance to Russia, India and Iran, both the US and Pakistan are not supportive of the idea of giving them any major role in the next Government. On the other hand, Russia and India do not relish the idea of the US entertaining the Pakistani demand for inducting the so-called moderate Talibans in the new Government.
In the background of these differing perceptions, the two leaders are expected to discuss the likely fallout on the region of any prolonged military action in Afghanistan and the eventual collapse of the Taliban.
According to the Russian ambassador to India, Alexander M. Kadakin, a joint statement to be issued at the end of the talks will touch upon many strategic issues like the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treat and US proposals for National Missile Defence, Afghanistan, counter-terrorism and the Indo-Russian strategic partnership. Speaking of the identity of views between India and Russia, Mr. Kadakin said, “the two countries are united in one most important condition - that there must be no Taliban in the future set up in Afghanistan.”
Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Oct 23, several bilateral documents are expected to be signed in Moscow between the two countries covering various sectors of the wide-raging bilateral relations. She added, these documents will further strengthen the multi-faceted relations between the two countries.
Sources say discussions relating to procurement of defence equipment from the Russian Federation are expected to be one of the main points on the agenda of Mr. Vajpayee’s talks in Moscow. Several defence issues including procurement of aircraft carrier “Admiral Gorshkov” and supply of defence spares and the MIG AT Advanced Jet trainers, are likely to come up for discussions during the visit of the Prime Minister. The annual budget earmarked for defence for the current financial year is to the tune of Rs. 62,000 crores. The high-profile visit to Russia by former Defence Minister Jaswant Singh had not yielded much from the defence point of view. The documents signed between the two countries at that time related to nothing but undertaking research and development in certain sectors like the joint production of the multi-role cargo carrier IL 214 or the development of fifth generation combat aircraft. Under the deal, Moscow wants to sell India the damaged “Admiral Gorshkov” aircraft carrier in a package along with two squadrons of MiG-29 fighter planes. The MiG AT is a French-Russian partnership venture and unique in terms of the first production standard advanced jet trainer to feature fly-by-wire flight controls, programmable to simulate different combat aircraft and glass cockpit technologies.
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