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Russian defense minister arrives on an official visit to India

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

New Delhi, Jan 19, IRNA -- Russian Defense minister Sergei Ivanov 
arrived here on a three-day official visit to India Monday evening. 
Informed sources in India`s Ministry of Defense told IRNA on 
Monday that during the visit Ivanov will meet his Indian counterpart 
George Fernandes, National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra Tuesday 
morning. He will also call on Indian Premier Atal Bihari Vajpayee on 
Tuesday. 
The Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee and Chief of the 
Naval Staff, Madhvendra Singh, the Chief of the Air Staff, S. 
Krishnaswamy, and the Army Chief, N.C. Vij, will also call on Russian 
defense minister, the sources said. 
According to some local press reports, the issues of security and 
terrorism are expected to top the agenda of Indo-Russian defense talks
in Delhi and the long delayed Gorshkov deal will also be signed. 
Russia was committed to deepening its strategic partnership with 
India and adding a trilateral dimension to it through cooperation with
China, the reports said. 
Ivanov earlier has said in Moscow, "Our strategic partnership with
India is sewn from a rich fabric of converging geopolitical interests,
cultural affinities and shared views on a multi-polar world order, 
international terrorism, as well as global and regional security," he 
said. 
On the prospects for interaction in the Delhi-Moscow-Beijing 
triangle, Ivanov said he welcomed trilateral cooperation and hoped it 
would eventually extend to the sensitive defense sphere. 
"I would greet Russia-India-China cooperation in the military- 
technical sphere and in joint development of new weapons. This would 
promote stability and security in Asia," he said adding that the three
nations would need to do a lot of political groundwork to make 
trilateral cooperation possible. 
Referring to India`s involvement in upgrading a military airfield 
in Tajikistan for use by the IAF, Ivanov said Moscow shared a common 
view with Delhi on the problems of Central Asia and `welcomes any 
participation of India in extending assistance to former Soviet 
states`. 
2160/AH/213 
End