India and Russia, who have close military and economic ties, have decided to hold first ever joint air force and naval war games in 2014.
New Delhi, Nov 19/Nationalturk- In order to boost their military ties, India and Russia have decided to hold first ever joint air force and naval war games in 2014.
The 13th Meeting of India – Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Military Technical Cooperation (IRIGC-MTC) was co- chaired by Indian Defence Minister A K Antony with his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoigu in Moscow yesterday.
“India and Russia agreed to expand the range of their strategic partnership in a significant manner. The two countries decided that the two countries will hold first ever joint Air Force level exercise besides a joint Navy exercise in Peter the Great Bay in Sea of Japan. Both the naval and air force war games will be held in 2014,”an Indian defence ministry spokesman said.
‘Indian, Russian armies held military exercises recently’
Indian and Russian Armies had recently held military exercise in Indian state of Rajasthan and focus of the ‘war game’ was on anti-terrorism.
“The two countries agreed that there is a need for further cooperation at all levels, especially in view of the regional and global challenges and to fight the menace of terrorism jointly,” the spokesman said.
Russia is India’s largest arms supplier and almost 80 per cent of all Indian military weapons, equipment, systems and vehicles are of Russian origin. However, India is now moving towards Europe and US for purchase of military equipment.
‘Russian Naval Aviation specialists will train Indian pilots’
Indian defence ministry spokesman said Russian Defence Minister assured his Indian counterpart that the Naval Aviation specialists will train Indian pilots fully for take- offs and landing on Russian-built aircraft carrier (INS Vikramaditya).
The Russian-built INS Vikramaditya aircraft carrier was handed over to Indian Navy recently.
“The two countries also agreed that the time has come to expand the cooperation not only in product design and development, which has made significant progress over the years but also to involve various echelons of the Defence establishments in strategising policies and cooperation in the fast changing global security scenario,” Indian defence ministry spokesman said.
http://www.nationalturk.com/en/india-russia-to-hold-air-force-naval-war-games-in-2014-44678
