"The meeting will review the entire range of military and military-technical cooperation issues between India and Russia within the framework of the Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership between the two countries," Indian defense ministry said in a statement.
Jaitley is expected to discuss and give final shape to the much-needed deals that include S-400 Triumf air defense missile systems, four Krivak class stealth frigates and Kamov 226T helicopters. Earlier this month, the finance ministry led by Jaitley approved a special arrangement made out to make Indo-Russia defense projects immune from western sanctions. Under the arrangement, Indian finance ministry waived banking guarantee clause mandatory for securing defense contracts in India. Instead of the bank guarantee, the Indian government accepted a sovereign guarantee from Russia.
In March this year, Jaitley invited Russian companies to share some critical technologies with Indian companies and produce defense equipment in India. In April, Jaitley said both the countries had started serious discussions with Russia for setting up another defense manufacturing unit under ‘Make in India' program. India and Russia also identified a total number of 485 lines for Transfer of Technology (ToT) to support Su-30 MKI fleet. A total of 20 Indian vendors has been introduced to Russian OEMs to find out the feasibility of ToT in the fields desired by Indian vendors.
