India, Russia sign 16 agreements across diverse sectors

Benaulim (Goa), Oct 15 (IANS) India and Russia on Saturday signed 16 agreements across diverse sectors following delegation-level talks co-chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin here.

"New horizons in the #IndiaRussia partnership. PM & Prez Putin witness exchange of 16 agreements and 3 announcements across fields," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted following the 17th annual bilateral summit between the two countries.

Among the agreements signed were inter-governmental agreements (IGAs) for procurement of the S-400 air defence system and construction of 1135.6 series of frigates through partnership between Russian and Indian shipyards.

Another agreement was signed to set up a joint venture to manufacture the Ka-226T helicopter in India.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed for setting up an investment fund of $1 billion by the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) and the Russian Direct Investment Fund.

Agreements were also signed for developing smart cities in Andhra Pradesh and Haryana, and for developing transport logistics systems for such cities.

Another important agreement was signed between Gazprom and Engineers India Limited ( EIL) for the joint study of a gas pipeline to India from Russia and other areas of cooperation.

According to a separate agreement, a Russian consortium comprising energy giant Rosneft Oil Company, commodities trader Trafigura and private investment group United Capital Partners agreed to purchase 98 percent of Essar Oil for $10.9 billion.

Rosneft also signed an agreement with ONGC Videsh for education and training in the oil and gas sector.

Both sides agreed to extend cooperation in railways development and to increase the speed of trains between Nagpur and Secunderabad.

An MoU was signed between India's ISRO and Russia's Roscosmos on mutual allocation of ground measurement gathering stations for Russian space-based navigational system GLONASS and Indian regional navigational system NAVIC.

An agreement was signed on cooperation on international information security.

Another MoU was signed for expansion of bilateral trade and economic cooperation between India and Russia.

An MoU was signed between India's Department of Science and Technology and Russia's Federal Agency for Scientific Organisations.

A road map for celebrating 70 years of India-Russia diplomatic ties was also announced.

Another announcement pertained to cooperation between the two countries on international issues.

--IANS

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