The Hindu : National : Russian Minister coming to sort out irritants in ties

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 26, 2004

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Russian Minister coming to sort out irritants in ties

By Sandeep Dikshit

NEW DELHI, NOV. 25. The Russian Defence Minister, Sergei Ivanov, will arrive here next week to sort out irritants in defence ties before the visit by his President, Vladimir Putin, a few days later. Russia is sore over the delay by India in finalising a defence secrecy protection agreement. What troubles the Russian diplomats here is that despite having close military ties with Russia for decades, New Delhi has signed such an agreement with the U.S. while taking time to finalise one with Moscow.

Early this year, India and the U.S. signed a mutual secrecy protection agreement, a mandatory requirement before exchanging information about each other's prowess in various areas of defence-related research. Signed during the tenure of the previous Defence Secretary, Ajay Prasad, the Indian establishment kept the pact a secret till a U.S. official publicly revealed the details later.

Russian diplomats who spoke to The Hindu on this issue said they were disappointed with India's attitude on this issue. But they maintained that lack of progress on the agreement would not impede the ongoing multi-dimensional military cooperation. The diplomats, who preferred anonymity, said the secrecy agreement was to have been signed along with the multi-thousand crore deal for the Gorshkov aircraft carrier early this year. While India dragged its feet on signing the agreement, they pointed out that Russia allowed Indian defence technologists to work in sensitive defence set-ups without a legal agreement. "No other country does that. We along with India had to sign a similar trilateral agreement with Israel after it was contracted to fit airborne radars on transport aircraft," officials pointed out.

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