Indian Government News, India and Russia have launched experts-level talks to thrash out the “few remaining” technical and financial issues pending on the upgrading of aircraft carrier Gorshkov.
“Hectic efforts are on at all levels to resolve the issue of Gorshkov, which was discussed at the highest political level by President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and now few remaining technical and financial issues are being discussed at experts level,” Director of 2nd Asia Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry Alexander Maryasov said on Thursday.
Defence Secretary Vijay Singh is presently leading a high-level Indian delegation to Russia to carry out physical verification of additional refit work needed on the aircraft carrier to justify additional costs as claimed by Moscow.
The 45,000 tonne displacement carrier was to have been delivered by August this year as per a USD 1.5 billion contract signed in 2005 but Russia stunned India in November by demanding an additional USD 1.2 billion for refitting and other works.
In a parallel development, RAC MiG Corporation announced on Thursday that it will deliver 16 MiG-29K fighters developed for Gorshkov to India by June this year.
According to the initial agreement, 12 fighters and 4 fighter trainers were to be deployed on Gorshkov after its induction by the Indian navy as INS Vikramaditya.
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