India and Russia on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to promote direct investment. The MoU envisages investments up to $2 billion in important bilateral projects or companies, privatisation and other opportunities.

The agreement was among the 10 that were signed at the 13th annual India-Russia summit. The Indian side was led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh while the Russian delegation was led by the visiting President Vladimir V. Putin.

In his address, the Prime Minister said that Russia’s deeper integration into the global economy by joining the World Trade Organisation would present more opportunities for the business communities in India and Russia.

“Our bilateral trade has grown by over 30 per cent this year. There is still untapped potential in areas such as pharmaceuticals, fertilisers, mining, steel, information technology, civil aviation, telecommunications, infrastructure, food processing, innovation and services, which we will work to exploit,” Singh said at the 13th Annual India-Russia Annual Summit meeting, which was held here on Monday.

The Prime Minister added that the two countries have asked their inter-Governmental and business-level groups to recommend specific steps for enhancing bilateral trade and investment flows.

Ties in oil, gas sectors

At the meeting, India also conveyed its interest in deepening co-operation in the oil and natural gas sectors with Russia, including through mutual investments and joint projects in third countries.

Pointing out that development of India’s nuclear energy programme had been a key pillar of the strategic partnership with Russia, Singh said that the construction of Unit 1 of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project was now complete, and power generation would commence shortly.

“Negotiations for the construction of Units 3 and 4 at Kudankulam have made good progress. We intend to continue implementing the roadmap for co-operation in the nuclear energy sector that was signed during President Putin’s visit in 2010 as the then Prime Minister of Russia,” Singh said.

He said India and Russia undertook an extensive review of the multi-faceted bilateral co-operation, especially in energy, defence, space, trade and investment, science and technology, education, culture and tourism.

Helicopter deal

India and Russia also signed a contract for 71 Mi-17V-5 helicopters up from 59 helicopters signed in February 2010.

In addition, a contract for licence production of an additional 42 SU aircraft was also inked. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd also signed a MoU with NIS-GLONASS for conducting through pilot projects for providing satellite-based navigation services.

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