Putin’s coming to India on Oct 2

Moscow, Sept 20: Russian President Vladimir Putin will pay a state visit to India, from October 2 to 5, it was officially announced here t...

Moscow, Sept 20: Russian President Vladimir Putin will pay a state visit to India, from October 2 to 5, it was officially announced here today. During the visit, Putin will hold talks with President K R Narayanan, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and meet other officials, the announcement said.

As a result of talks in Delhi, a series of bilateral documents, including Declaration on Strategic Partnership between Russia and India, are planned to be signed, the statement said.

"Putin’s forthcoming state visit to India will become a major event in the affairs of development of traditional Russian-Indian cooperation and will facilitate the strengthening of global and regional stability," the statement noted.

In a related development, Interfax news agency reports from New York that Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh, discussed "practical steps" to pave the way for Putin’s visit to India.

"The ministers expressed satisfaction over a progressive development of Russia-India ties, and expect the visit to bring their relations to a higher level," it said quoting a diplomatic source.

During their talks, the two ministers, confirmed unanimity of views on issues of "building a just world order of a multi-polar architecture," with a focus on strategic stability. The sides came out in favour of preserving the 1972 ABM Treaty as a basis for the entire system of international security existing currently, the news agency said.

They also agreed to jointly work towards the UN General Assembly passing a resolution in support of the treaty, which Russia will submit.