External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday briefed his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on the Indo-American nuclear deal and hoped for a further movement on it after his talks with the Left parties later this month.
Their 40-minute bilateral meeting here was the first high-level political contact between India and Russia after the inauguration of new Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and appointment of Vladimir Putin as the prime minister.
Mukherjee briefed Lavrov on the nuclear deal with the US and expressed hope that after his May 28 meeting with the Left allies, a further movement could be possible.
The Indian minister also raised the issues of delay in the delivery of Gorshkov aircraft carrier and called for speedy implementation of joint multi-role transport aircraft and fifth generation fighter projects. On his part, Lavrov assured that all the issues will be shortly resolved.
Lavrov apprised Mukherjee that Medvedev will continue the tradition of annual bilateral summits set by his predecessor
Putin in 2000 and will visit India later this year and take part in the closing ceremony of the Year of Russia in India.
At their one-to-one meeting, described by diplomatic sources as "extremely positive," the two ministers did not
take the help of their interpreters and spoke in English to have more time for parleys.
Mukherjee arrived here yesterday on a three-day visit to attend the ministerial meetings of India, Russia, China
and Brazil in trilateral and quadrilateral formats.
Mukherjee and Lavrov started their interaction on Wednesday night at the dinner hosted by the Russian Foreign Minister for his Indian and Chinese counterparts Yang Jiechi, which continued later on Thursday at the BRIC ministerial meeting.
