India-Russia strengthen defence ties at 22nd Working Group meeting on military technical cooperation

The 22nd meeting of the India-Russia Working Group on Military technical cooperation and defence industry was held on Friday in New Delhi.

The meeting was co-chaired by Sanjeev Kumar, Secretary, Defence Production, Ministry of Defence and A Boytsov, First Deputy Director of the Federal Service for Military Technical Cooperation of Russia.

Sharing the development on X, the Ministry of Defence posted, “22nd meeting of #IndiaRussia Working Group on Military #TechnicalCooperation and #DefenceIndustry of India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Military & Military Technical Cooperation (IRIGC-M&MTC) took place in New Delhi today.”

“The meeting was co-chaired by Secretary (Defence Production) Shri Sanjeev Kumar and First Deputy Director of Federal Service for Military Technical Cooperation, Russia Mr A Boytsov,” the post added.

Defence cooperation has been a cornerstone of the India-Russia strategic partnership, guided by the Agreement on the Programme for Military-Technical Cooperation.

The Agreement for the period 2021-2031 was signed during the inaugural meeting of the India-Russia 2+2 Dialogue in Delhi on December 6, 2021. The two sides also have periodic exchanges of armed forces personnel and military exercises, according to the Embassy of India in Moscow, Russia.

India and Russia have an institutionalised structure to oversee the complete range of issues of military and military-technical cooperation. The inaugural India-Russia 2+2 Dialogue (set up in 2021) was held in Delhi on December 6, 2021, on the sidelines of the Summit meeting. The Dialogue was chaired by Defence Ministers and Foreign Ministers of both sides. The India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Military Technical Cooperation (IRIGC-MTC), set up in 2000, is at the apex of this structure.

The 20th edition of this meeting was held in Delhi on December 6, 2021. There are two Working Groups and nine Sub-Groups under the IRIGC-M&MTC, which review and discuss an array of military and military-technical issues.

Over the years, cooperation in the military-technical sphere has evolved from a purely buyer-seller relationship to joint research, design development and production of state-of-the-art military platforms, as per the Embassy of India.

Production of the Brahmos cruise missile is an example of this trend. The joint Venture namely Indo-Russia Rifles Private Limited (IRRPL) has been established and it has started production of AK-203 rifles in India under the “Make in India” initiative.