The two countries were slated on Thursday to review the ongoing bilateral military-technical cooperation, with New Delhi all set to convey its deep unhappiness over the delivery of aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya or the refurbished Admiral Gorshkov getting delayed once again.
The defence ministry, in an official statement, said, “It has been conveyed by Russia that its defence minister was required to stay back for urgent participation in a programme of the Russian President ( Vladimir Putin). The 12th meeting of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Military Technical Cooperation (IRIGC-MTC) will now be held on October 10.”
But what raised eyebrows here is that the deferring of the IRIGC-MTC meeting coincided withPakistan Army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani landing in Moscow on a four-day visit, while Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov is on a visit to Islamabad.
Pakistan has been trying to cosy up to Russia, the largest defence supplier to India for decades, but in a major hiccup last week Putin’s visit to Islamabad on October 2-3 was postponed at the last minute. Apart from the cancellation of the quadrilateral summit among Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Afghanistan, it has led to a lot of heartburn in Pakistan.
Gen Kayani’s visit to Russia is being seen as a bid to paper over the cracks in the growing ties between Islamabad and Moscow, in the backdrop of the impending pullout of US-led coalition forces from Afghanistan in 2014. “The postponement of Serdyukov’s visit to India could be linked to Gen Kayani’s presence in Moscow,” said an official.
Russia could have also deferred the visit to finalize “a concrete proposal” for the refit-repair package of the 44,570-tonne Vikramaditya, the delivery of which has now been pushed back to end-2013 much to India’s dismay.
India has paid $2.33 billion for Vikramaditya’s refit, instead of the original $974 million earmarked in the January 2004 contract under which the carrier was to be delivered by August 2008, and wants Russia to deploy more manpower at the Sevmash shipyard to ensure the work on the carrier is finished swiftly.
As per the re-revised timeframe, Vikramaditya was to be inducted into the Indian Navy on December 9, with 500 Indian sailors led by Captain Suraj Berry already in Russia for it, but serious engine and boiler malfunctions have now delayed the delivery by another year.
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