Singh will be in the Russian capital for just over 24 hours, but he has promised to avail of the opportunity to reiterate the “special and unique place” Russia enjoys in India’s foreign policy matrix.

The visit comes amidst indications of the Russian leadership’s doubts about Delhi’s commitment to foster the special relationship the two countries have enjoyed for almost six decades.

Though the Indian government recently described as “grossly exaggerated” media reports about the Russian leadership’s cold welcome to External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee during his recent visit to Moscow, Russia’s suspicion on the growing Indo-US ties is no longer a secret.

Mukherjee returned from his Moscow visit without being able to meet his Russian counterpart or President Vladimir Putin.

PM’s intent

It appeared from a pre-visit interview he gave to a leading Russian news agency — RIA Novosti – that the prime minister would be keen on removing irritants in the ties, during his meeting with Putin.

“India and Russia have enjoyed close ties of friendship and partnership over the last sixty years. Russia occupies a special and unique place in India’s foreign relations. Our time-tested relationship is based on deep mutual trust and understanding,” the prime minister was quoted by agencies as having said in the interview.

He expressed optimism that the bilateral ties would grow to “great heights” in the coming years.

Significantly, he also said in the interview that the interests of the two countries would continue to converge on all major international issues. One of the areas of traditional strengths in the ties is military cooperation and this has also been the area of Russian suspicions in recent months. But the prime minister is expected to take the opportunity to reiterate the primacy of military cooperation in the ties.

Stating that Russia was the most important partner in defence cooperation, the prime minister said in the interview that “Russia is the only country with which we have a formal mechanism of an Inter-Governmental Commission for military-technical cooperation, which meets annually under the chairmanship of the two defence ministers.”

He said defence cooperation was the integral part of the bilateral strategic partnership. He went on to cite last month’s signing of inter-governmental agreement for cooperation in the production and development of fifth generation multi-functional fighter aircraft.

The prime minister also singled out the energy sector for deepening cooperation. He indicated that the two sides could sign an MoU for setting up of four more nuclear reactors at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu with Russian cooperation.

Already two reactors are coming up at Kudankulam and two more have been agreed to by the two sides. But construction of new reactors would have to wait until India gets the waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers Group’s strict guidelines on nuclear trade. Russia is supportive of the efforts to secure India-specific relaxation of the NSG guidelines.