make an assessment on vladimir putin's visit to India in 2007
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There will an opening statement by the Prime Minister of India His Excellency Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, to be followed by an opening statement by the President of the Russian Federation His Excellency Mr. Vladimir Putin. The opening statements will be followed by a short question-answer session.
May I now request the Prime Minister of India to kindly make his opening remarks.
SHRI ATAL BIHARI VAJPAYEE: It is a great pleasure to have President Putin and his delegation here with us in India. His visit is part of our recent tradition of annual summits, which we established during President Putin’s visit to India in October, 2000. Regular summit level dialogue is an important element of our strategic partnership.
Our discussions today covered a wide range of bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual concern. The two declarations which we have just signed show the extent of convergence of our interests and perspectives.
We have agreed to intensify and widen our cooperation against terrorism bilaterally and in multilateral fora. We exchanged views on the terrorist activity which threatens the stability of our region. Recent terrorist acts in various parts of India, in Moscow, Bali, Mombasa and elsewhere have shown that terrorism is seeking ever-newer targets.
The defence mechanisms have to be well coordinated. India-Russia Defence Cooperation has transcended a buyer-seller relationship and now encompasses joint research, design, development and co-production. President Putin and I agree to take this cooperation forward in projects of mutual benefit and in the interest of our national security.
Our cooperation in the peaceful application of our atomic energy and space technology has been very fruitful and we have agreed to look at ways to further it.
We have taken a hard look at measures to bring India-Russia bilateral trade up to the true potential by diversifying our trade basket. In this regard we welcome the recent Russian interest in the Indian telecommunications, electronics and information technology sectors in addition to the traditional areas of power and metallurgy. Commercialization of technologies developed through joint science and technology projects is another promising area of future collaboration. We are also looking at measures to promote greater investment flows from our two countries.
Cooperation in energy has a long-term strategic significance for both our countries. Our collaboration in the Sakhalin-I project has made good progress. We have agreed to extend our cooperation to other areas including the Caspian Sea and to other aspects of energy sector.
President Putin has invited me to visit Russia. I have accepted the invitation with pleasure.
Thank you.
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