New Delhi: A month after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to India, Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu will be in the national capital, on Wednesday to further boost military cooperation with India.Â
Shoigu will co-chair the 13th round of Indo-Russian intergovernmental commission on military technical cooperation with his counterpart Manohar Parrikar in New Delhi.Â
Russia which has remained India’s biggest arm exporter is again set to give co-development and co-production of its top notch advance weapon systems to India under Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ policy.
According to credible sources in the Ministry of Defence, visit of Russian defence Minister would revolve around the joint project for the co-development of the stealth fifth generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) and multi role transport aircraft (MTA) which has been struck due to cost and delivery issues. Earlier, India had shown concerns over the technical specifications of the stealth aircraft.Â
Before inking the final deal with Russia, India wants to ensure delivery of the stealth fighter begins much before the earlier slated induction of 2024-2025, onwards.
The FGFA agreement for co-producing 127 single-seat fighters for India at the Ozar facility of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) was set to be signed in 2012, but since the delay in inking the project the cost has escalated. Â
Once India and Russia ink the final R&D agreement; both will contribute $5.5 billion each towards the cost of designing, infrastructure build-up, prototype development and flight testing.