India and Russia will sign a pact on Thursday to extend their military cooperation programme till 2020 as Defence Minister A K Antony and his counterpart Anatoly Serdyukov discussed a wide range of issues, including the upgrade of aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov.
Inaugurating the ninth session of the Intergovernmental Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation co-chaired by Antony, Serdyukov declared that closest defence cooperation with India would remain the "key pillar" of the bilateral strategic partnership.
Antony, who arrived in Moscow on Wednesday on a three-day visit, had over one-hour long meeting with Serdyukov, instead of the initial 30-minute one-to-one session. Gorshkov upgrade, modernisation of the older fleet of Sukhoi Su-30 warplanes, serial production of T-90S main battletanks in India and transfer of technology were among some of the issues reviewed by Antony and Serdyukov, Russian defence ministry spokesperson Irina Kovalchuk said.
The intergovernmental commission co-chaired by the defence ministers of the two nations is the apex coordination body of the long-term defence programme for the development and delivery of new weapons platforms and weapons.
The ministers will sign a pact on Thursday to extend their military cooperation programme till 2020. India is the only country with which Russia has such an extensive long-term defence cooperation programme.
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