Russia, India agree to major new arms deals

MOSCOW -- India and Russia have agreed to several large arms deals.

The deals include the Russian sale and coproduction of aircraft, submarines and anti-aircraft defense systems. A senior Russian minister said New Dehli and Moscow have also agreed to develop a missile defense system.

One major deal announced over the weekend in New Dehli was a Russian agreement to lease 50 early-warning aircraft and T-22 strategic bombers to India. Visiting Russian Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, who announced the deal, did not say how much India would pay for the arrangement.

The minister said Russia and India have completed an agreement for the transfer of the 40,000-ton aircraft carrier, Admiral Gorshkov. The contract is expected to be signed early next year and will include up to 40 MiG-29K fighter-jet.

Klebanov said the two countries also agreed to cooperate to manufacture the Russian Kilo class and Amur class submarines in India. In the early 1990s, Russia sold three Kilo-class subs to Iran.

The two countries are also negotiating agreements for joint production of ground-to-air missiles, including the S-300, which Russia says can down enemy ballistic missiles. Klebanov said India and Russia are jointly developing a new generation anti-missile system.

Klebanov said India will be allowed to produce the SU-30 bomber early next year.

The deals were announced as Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin expressed his intention to revive his nation's arms industry. "The government must ensure the growth of revenues from the sale of weapons," he said. "Russian arms and their creators are the resource, that key link with which we can begin to pull up the whole of the Russian economy."

Putin said the revival of the arms industry would help Russia stake a position in the global economy. "We must stop the process of our being left behind by the economically developed nations of the world, and find the path which will allow us to take up a suitable place in the ranks of leading nations in the 21st Century," he said.

Earlier, the Russian Air Force received 11 strategic bombers bought from Ukraine in a move to bolster its nuclear strike capability. They included the supersonic Tu-160 Blackjack bomber and the turboprop Tu-95 Bear bomber.

Russia, in exchange for the bombers, has agreed to write off $285 million of Ukraine's $1.8 billion debt for natural gas deliveries. Ukraine inherited more than 40 Soviet strategic bombers after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. But Kiev was unable to maintain and fly them and offered to sell them to Russia.

Russian defense officials quoted by the Interfax agency said Moscow would also obtain more than 500 cruise missiles to be carried by the aircraft.

In another development, Georgia has refused a request from Moscow to activate Russian military bases on its territory in an attempt to defeat Chechnya. "We don't consider as acceptable Moscow's request to activate Russian military bases on our territory because we think it could drag Georgia into undesirable consequences," Georgian Defense Minister David Tevzadze told state television.

In another development, Russia said Kazakstan will lift a blanket ban on Russian rocket launches but will not allow Proton-type rockets to take off until an investigation into last month's crash is complete. Yuri Koptev, head of the Russian Space Agency, said the ban will be lifted Nov. 17 as part of a Russian agreement to assume liability for future crashes.

Two Russian Proton rockets exploded after launch this year, both sending rocket parts and chemicals raining down on Kazak territory. The rockets were carrying satellites and nobody was injured.