Russian Team In Delhi To Give Final Touches To Admiral Gorshkov

Russian Team In Delhi To Give Final Touches To Admiral Gorshkov Deal Huma Siddiqui New Delhi, November 18:

A high-level team from Russia is in New Delhi to give final touches to the Admiral Gorshkov deal. The deal involves the sale of an aircraft carrier to India, the price negotiations for which have been going on for several years.

According to highly placed sources in the defence ministry, both India and Russia have finally arrived at an informal consensus on the pricing issue. The team is expected to clear all the finer points of the negotiations before President Vladimir Putin arrives in New Delhi early next month to give it a final shape.

Sources have revealed that before the deal is put before the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) for approval, both the sides will have to agree on the cost of the aircraft carrier.

In 2001, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov had announced that Russia was intending to conclude a contract to sell India the AdmiralGorshkov aircraft carrier that year itself.

Earlier this year, Russian Ambassador to India Alexander Kadakin had told the mediapersons, “The work is on to equip it. It is going on successfully. There is no alarm about the status of the deal”.

Although Admiral Gorshkov was a ‘gift’ from Russia, it would cost India more than $700 million for re-fit, besides the price of the aircraft that the ship would carry. The deal will bring Russia an estimated — $700 million to modernise the carrier and $900 million for a batch of MiG-29K naval fighters and weapons.

Second only to China in procuring Russian military products, New Delhi has cooperated with Moscow in military and technical matters for decades and in the last few years has agreed to buy more than $10 billion in arms.

President Vladimir Putin reinforced the relationship on a visit to India in October 2000 by creating a bilateral commission on military and technical cooperation.

The Admiral Gorshkov was first offered to the Indian Navy about eight years ago at a reported price of $400 million. Obviously overcome by their friendly relations with India, the Russians are now gifting the carrier to India. After donating the ship to the Indian Navy, it has to undergo a refit in a Russian yard at a cost of $1 billion (Rs 4,500 crore).

According to military analysts, if it goes through, the Rs 9,000 crore purchase of the Admiral Gorshkov will probably be the largest single defence deal India would have entered into with any country since Independence. The cost of the carrier and the aircraft is equal to the entire Indian Naval budget for the past three years.