AFP,
A contract worth 1.8 billion dollars for India's purchase of the revamped Russian aircraft carier Admiral Gorshkov will be signed in New Delhi in January, a Russian official told the Interfax news agency Tuesday.
“The two sides have agreed on the contract and its signing is expected in New Delhi in January 2004,” Interfax quoted an unnamed official with Moscow's foreign military cooperation committee as saying.
“The cost of renovation and modernization of the Admiral Gorshkov is estimated at approximately 700 million dollars, the official said.
“The rest of the sum — more than one billion dollars — is on the planes,” he said, referring to the carrier's fleet of MiG-29K fighter jets.
Indian navy chief Madhvendra Singh told reporters early this month that India and Russia had agreed on a 30-billion-rupee price tag (652 million dollars) for Admiral Gorshkov which included two squadrons of the MiG fighter jets.
The Russian official said India has insisted that Russia equip the carrier with an anti-aircraft defense system “Kashtan.”
“This system, however, has not yet fully undergone tests and according to the agreeement will be installed on the carrier later,” he said.
Negotiations for the Russian ship have dragged on for three years due to differences over the price and other terms.
Russia offered the Admiral Gorshkov free of charge to India three years ago, on condition that New Delhi cough up millions of dollars to refit the ageing hulk.
Russia still accounts for more than 70 percent of the military hardware used by India, although New Delhi has increasingly been looking to Europe, Israel and the United States for defence equipment.
The Indian navy decommissioned one of its two aircraft carriers in January 1997, while the second is due to be retired in a couple of years.
