Medvedev to seek to fend off West in India

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will lobby hard during a visit to India on Tuesday  for the former Cold War ally to stay loyal to Russian-made  fighter jets and nuclear reactors, rather than those offered  by the West. 

Russia has been India's close economic and political partner since Soviet days, and monopolised India's defence  market for decades, but New Delhi wants to reduce its reliance  on one country to reflect its growing clout on the world stage. 

Leaders from Britain, the United States, France and China  -- along with Russia, the permanent members of the United  Nations Security Council -- have all visited India in the last  six months, securing contracts worth a total of around $50  billion. 

Medvedev, accompanied by a large delegation of business leaders, is to hold talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh  and ruling Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday in New  Delhi, then visit the Taj Mahal in Agra and India's financial  capital Mumbai on Wednesday. 

"It is well known that we want to diversify our basket of  suppliers for our strategic areas. We will always have close  ties with Russia but they are no longer the only game in  town," said a senior Indian government official, who declined  to be named. 

Russia sees India as a counterweight to China and a potential ally in Afghanistan. India's growing ties with the  United States, underscored by a landmark civil nuclear deal,  has made Russia ill at ease. 

New Delhi is likely to seek unequivocal backing from Russia  for its ambition to secure a permanent seat on an enlarged  U.N. Security Council, following statements of support from  Paris and Washington in recent months. 

Medvedev is likely to secure a long-awaited contract with  India on jointly developing 250-300 fifth generation fighter  aircraft over 10 years. The contract amount is unknown, but  unofficially said to be around $35 billion. 

He may have a tough task convincing India to strike more  arms deals following delays to the delivery of some Russian  projects, including the Admiral Gorshkov heavy aircraft  carrying cruiser. 

Moscow-based defence analysts Cast say Russia has nearly  tripled the price, and delayed delivery of the cruiser by four  years, since signing the original contract in 2004. 

Up for negotiation during Medvedev's visit will be a deal  for a third site for a Russian-built nuclear power plant. 

"Energy is one area where Russia will be the most  important partner for India both in terms of conventional and  non conventional energy.... Russians are one of our main  suppliers of nuclear power plants," said Lalit Mansingh,  former Indian foreign secretary. 

Russia is keen to continue supplying technology and  expertise to energy-hungry India as it plans to add 63,000 MW  of nuclear power by 2032 to support its economic growth. 

Behind the rhetoric of expanding ties with its fellow BRIC  economy -- the term used to group emerging powers Brazil,  Russia, India and China -- bilateral trade is eclipsed by  Russia's booming economic ties with the European Union and  China. 

The Kremlin said trade with India will total $10 billion  this year, while official statistics show Russia's trade with  the European Union stood at $246 billion in the first 10  months of 2010, and trade with China was $47.5 billion in the  same period. 

India and Russia hope to boost bilateral trade to $20  billion within five years. 
 

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