India-Ukraine set to sign strategic pact

[Yeti]

India and Ukraine are to sign a strategic partnership during the four-day state visit of President Viktor Yanukovych beginning on Sunday.

Senior defence officials told India Today that the strategic partnership would enhance military cooperation between the two countries particularly in the field joint ventures.

"Ukraine also provides an attractive alternative to Russia as an arms supplier," a defence official said. President Yanukovych will be accompanied by a sizeable defence delegation.

On the anvil are deals for the sale of the formidable 'Kolchuga' electronic support measure system used to detect and track stealth warplanes, the R-77 missile and collaborations in aerospace projects. Both countries are also expected to sign deals on trade and nuclear safety related issues.

For years, India and Ukraine had frosty relations following Russian sensitivities and also for the fact that Ukraine emerged as a major supplier of main battle tanks to Pakistan.

The ice was broken in 2009 when Ukraine and India signed a $400 million deal to upgrade the Indian Air Force's fleet of 105 Soviet-era An-32 light transport aircraft.

A total of 25 upgraded aircraft have been handed over so far. The deal calls for the modernization of 40 An-32s in Ukraine and the remainder in Kanpur.

Ukraine inherited a legacy of Soviet-era military industrial complex. The 'Zorya' gas turbines that power Delhi class naval warships are produced in Ukraine.

Interestingly, both aircraft carriers, India's Vikramaditya(ex-Admiral Gorshkov) and China's Liaoning(ex-Varyag) were built in Ukraine's Nikolayev shipyard.


India-Ukraine set to sign strategic pact during President Yanukovych's visit : North, News - India Today

 

[Yeti]

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has said he hopes for the intensification of trade and economic relations between Ukraine and India and believes that his state visit to India should give new impetus to the development of relations between the two countries.

"I expect a significant intensification in our trade and economic relations, and, of course, they must be accompanied by high-level political contacts," the presidential press service quoted him as saying in an interview with English-language Indian daily newspaper the Hindu ahead of his visit to India.

Yanukovych added that Ukraine was ready to develop cooperation with India in various fields, particularly in energy, metallurgy, chemical industry, shipbuilding, and engineering.

He said he was confident that the two countries have significant potential to increase bilateral trade.

"The range of our products is of mutual interest," Yanukovych said.

A full interview with the president will be published in the newspaper on Monday, December 10. Among other topics of the interview are the Ukrainian-Russian gas issue, as well as Ukraine's domestic and foreign policy.

Yanukovych will make a state visit to India on December 9-12.