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India, Russia sign Sukhoi deal

India and Russia Thursday signed their single largest ever defence deal for the production of 140 Sukhoi-30MKI multi-role jets in India by HAL over 17 years under Russian license, Interfax news agency reported.

The over three billion dollar deal was inked at SU-30MKI manufacturing ''IAPO' aircraft plant in the Siberian city of Irkutsk.

''It is the single largest defence deal ever signed by Russia with any country,'' Russia's main 'ORT' TV said.

A high-level Indian team led by Dhirendra Singh, additional secretary defence production and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited chairman Krishna Das Nair, currently in Russia completed the formalities and inked the deal with officials of 'Rosoboronprom, the state arms exporting agency.

The deal provides for the full production of 150 next generation combat jets in India and has taken their defence cooperation "far beyond" a "buyer-seller" relationship, Russian and Indian defence experts say.

Encouraged by the professional competence of the Indian engineers and experts, the Sukhoi Corporation has expressed its willingness to jointly develop a fifth generation fighter with India for the Russian and Indian air forces if the political leadership of the two countries agrees.

The two countries had agreed for the Sukhoi technology transfer during Russian Prisdent Vladimir Putin's India visit on October 2-5, when Defence Minister George Fernandes and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Iliya Klebanov signed a memorandum.

Under the deal India would be given a ''deep'' license, which provides for the indigenous production of all the components of SU-30MKI over a period of 20 years including 'AL-31FP's state-of-the-art thrust-vectoring engines.

PTI

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