Medvedev agenda: Defence, N-ties, Bollywood

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India and Russia are likely to sign a number of agreements in the defence, civil nuclear cooperation, space and economy sectors after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev holds talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here on Tuesday.
Ministry of external affairs (MEA) spokesperson Vishnu Prakash said the two sides will also look at ways to expand cooperation in the field of hydrocarbons. He described the bilateral cooperation in civil nuclear cooperation and hydrocarbons as the “twin pillars” of the long-term strategic partnership.
“India is a large consumer and Russia a large producer of hydrocarbons. Russia is looking for an assured buyer and India needs a stable supplier. So there is natural synergy in this area between us,” he said.
Asked whether the agreement on the fifth generation fighter aircraft would be signed on the occasion, he said, “That is a long-term project of advance manufacturing and it will have a number of milestones in it, and we don’t know whether one or two of them will be achieved during the meeting here.”
However, Russian ambassador to India Alexander M. Kadakin had recently indicated to journalists at a press conference that the two sides are expected to sign over two dozen pacts, including one on the fifth generation fighter aircraft and another on strengthening the existing civil nuclear cooperation. Russia has built two nuclear plants at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu and it is likely to sign a deal for building two new reactors there.
Under the fifth generation fighter aircraft deal, likely to be worth over $30 billion, India is planning to co-develop and build an advanced fighter aircraft which will be similar or more advanced than the American F/A-22 Raptor.
Mr Medvedev will call on President Pratibha Patil and meet vice-president Hamid Ansari, external affairs minister S.M. Krishna, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. On Wednesday, he will visit Agra and Mumbai. In Mumbai, Mr Medvedev will visit the Indian Institute of Technology and Film City. Mr Medvedev’s visit to Film City would be a tribute to Bollywood, which continues to inspire and entertain his countrymen. Although the silver screen in Russia has been captured by Hollywood-controlled film distributors, Bollywood is still alive and kicking in millions of homes across the vast Eurasian giant due to the round-the-clock Russian language paid channel India TV, a news agency reported.