Indo-Russian military industrial conference to be held this year

Panaji (Goa) [India], Oct. 15 (ANI): India and Russia have welcomed plans to hold Indo-Russian military industrial conference later this year. A joint statement issued by both sides after the bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin said, "Both sides welcomed plans to hold Indo-Russian military industrial conference later in 2016 and create bilateral Science and Technology Committee. The Indo-Russian Military industrial Conference will address military equipment related issues including spares, repair and maintenance of Russian supplied equipment and co-production. Private players too would be invited to participate under Make in India initiative." "The Bilateral Science and Technology Committee would focus on matters relating to R&D collaboration in such high-tech areas as IT, communication, cyber security, medical engineering, outer space cooperation, remote sensing, etc," said the statement. Recognizing the contribution of military-technical cooperation in the special and privileged strategic partnership between the two countries, the leaders of both sides reaffirmed their strong commitment to continue their cooperation in this field. In this context, they commended the activities of the Indian-Russian Inter-Governmental Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation. They also expressed satisfaction at joint Indian-Russian exercises INDRA involving ground forces in Russia's Far East in 2016. They welcomed the visit of the Indian Minister of State for Defence in April 2016 and delegation of the National Defence College in May-June 2016 to Moscow and underlined the need to expand training, joint exercises and institutionalized interactions between the armed forces of both countries. Both nations noted with satisfaction achievements in the field of joint design, development and production of high-technology military equipment and in this context, positively evaluated the establishment of the Joint Venture for production of Ka-226T helicopters in India. In areas of security and disaster management, recognizing the need for sustained and institutionalized interactions to foster greater security-related and disaster management cooperation, the two sides noted the successful visit of Russian Minister for Civil Defence, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters Vladimir Puchkov to India in March 2016, during which they held the first meeting of the Joint Commission on cooperation in the field of prevention and elimination of emergencies and signing of the Joint Implementation Plan for the years 2016-2017. Recalling the visit of Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev to India in September 2015, they reaffirmed their intention to finalize an Agreement on Cooperation between the Ministry of Interior of India and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation and a Joint Action Plan between the Narcotics Control Bureau of the Republic of India and the Ministry of the Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, which would provide an enabling framework to further develop ongoing inter-ministerial interactions for exchange of best practices and expertise, conducting training courses in countering extremism and drug-trafficking. (ANI)