Jaitley s Russia visit to further military cooperation (Lead)

New Delhi June 20 (IANS) Defence Minister Arun Jaitley left on a three-day visit to Russia on Tuesday to further the bilateral military ties between the two countries.

During his visit Jaitley would co-chair two meetings: one with his Russian counterpart General Sergei Shoigu and the other with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin.

The Defence Minister s visit comes weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed St Petersburg Declaration for enhanced ties between the two nations.

Under the agreement both India and Russia decided to upgrade and intensify military cooperation through joint manufacture co-production and co-development of military hardware and military spares.

They also committed to increase reliance on the adoption and sharing of future technologies under the existing agreements on military-technical cooperation.

In line with the agreement Jaitley would on Wednesday co-chair along with Rogozin the first meeting of the India-Russia High Level Committee on Science and Technology a government statement said.

The newly-formed committee would discuss cooperation in high technologies during the meeting to be held on the sidelines of the Technoprom Exhibition in the city of Novosibirsk it added.

Jaitley would also address the main plenary session of the Technoprom a major annual science technology and innovation exhibition of Russia.

On Friday he would co-chair the 17th meeting of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation in Moscow with Shoigu.

The meeting will review the entire range of military and military-technical cooperation issues between India and Russia within the framework of the Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership between the two countries the statement said.

--IANS
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