MOSCOW, December 6 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian president and the Indian prime minister met in the Kremlin Tuesday for a wide-ranging discussion of bilateral and international issues.
Opening negotiations with Manmohan Singh, Vladimir Putin said: "Russian-Indian relations are truly strategic." He also said bilateral relations were constantly improving.
Focusing on energy matters, Putin said Russia was ready to increase supplies of oil and natural gas to India and to consider building pipelines.
"We know that India is interested in an increase in oil and gas supplies, and we are drafting the most diverse plans to accomplish these objectives at the expert level," Putin said.
The president added that Russian experts were considering building other types of pipelines in the region.
The president said Russia and India were seeking to advance cooperation in the production and supply of hydrocarbon resources. He cited the joint development of an oil and gas field under the Sakhalin-I project in Russia's Far East, where commercial production was launched in October. The president said the $10 billion invested in the project had been used effectively.
According to Singh, India, whose economy is booming, is in need of energy resources and its dependence on imports will continue to grow. Singh said cooperation with its neighbors and with Russia would foster India's sustainable economic development.
The Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline will be more than 2,500km long (1,562 miles long), cost $4.5 billion, and deliver natural gas from Iranian deposits to Pakistan and India.
The three countries will equally benefit from the project. India will emerge as a permanent consumer of Iranian natural gas, whereas Pakistan will earn $500 million a year on gas transits. Experts said Pakistan would also need an additional 600 to 1,500 million cubic feet of natural gas a day in the next few years.
The project is also important politically, as it will be the first joint project for India and Pakistan, involved in a long territorial dispute over Kashmir.
Putin said Russia was willing to cooperate with India on nuclear power projects.
Following the talks, he said: "Russia will be contributing to the implementation of our Indian partners' large, ambitious plans...in the area of peaceful nuclear power engineering."
Putin also noted the recent progress of Russian-Indian cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy and praised the work of the intergovernmental commission for military technological cooperation.
"We can see India taking the necessary steps to build its relations with the world community, including with the group of nuclear suppliers," Putin said.
He praised India for adopting legislation to develop its nuclear industry and for drawing a clear line between its military and peaceful nuclear programs.
"We view India as a strategic partner and will be working hard to enable it to effectively solve its problems...in all areas, including through the peaceful use of nuclear power," Putin said.
Singh said Russian-Indian cooperation in the nuclear sector had huge potential, given the Indian economy's growing need for energy and the importance of nuclear fuel as an alternative energy source.
The Indian premier also said a nuclear power plant being built in Kudankulam in the southern Indian province of Tamil Nadu with the help of Russian specialists would be commissioned in 2007 or 2008.
After the talks ended, the two leaders also said Russia and India were planning to sign an agreement on wide-ranging economic cooperation.
Putin said he and Singh had discussed the need to boost and diversify trade, and to encourage mutual investment.
"We believe power engineering, telecommunications, space research and transportation infrastructure are the most significant and promising areas of cooperation," he said.
Singh said that Russia and India - both with vibrantly growing economies - had the potential to expand their ties in business and trade and that the promising agreement would be drafted in such a way as to enable their bilateral projects to benefit from economic globalization.
Sign assured the Russian head of state of India's support for Russia's World Trade Organization bid, and said a relevant bilateral agreement would be signed soon.
The premier also said that India and Russia were considering bilateral plans to build a multi-purpose transport plane and a fifth-generation fighter.
Singh said Russian and Indian experts would continue the relevant talks.
As for regional cooperation, Putin welcomed India's participation as an observer in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a regional security forum of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Russia and China.
"We are set to work further with Indian partners in multilateral associations in the Asia-Pacific region," Putin told reporters after the talks.
In the context of regional cooperation, Putin also said that Russia wanted to maintain a three-party format of cooperation with India and China.
"Increasingly close partnership ties between the three largest countries of the continent are a significant factor of economic stability and progress on the vast Eurasian space," Putin said.
The parties also decided to reinvigorate humanitarian partnership, and in particular agreed to hold the Year of Russia in India in 2008.
At the end of the talks, Singh said Putin had accepted his invitation to India, but did not specify when the visit could take place.
