Thursday, June 2 2005 17:08 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Vladivostok: India today (Jun 2, 2005) offered to set aside about $ 100 million for new areas of cooperation with Russia covering information technology, biotechnology and nano-technology.

This was conveyed by External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh during an hour-long meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Vladivostok.

The two leaders also discussed the proposal of Russian company Rosmeft, which has offered ONGC Videsh equity participation in an oil-producing block. Lavrov agreed with Singh's suggestion that a decision in this regard should be taken at the earliest.

"Moscow was interested in the rupee debt fund and Russian company System has proposed to the Russian Government to utilize nearly $ 400 million worth of rupee funds for investment in the telecom sector," Lavrov said.

He said Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov may undertake a visit to India later this year (2005) so that the economic content of bilateral relations gets a "systematic boost".

He also said that before the end of the year, an agreement would be signed to facilitate the travel of businessmen, students and tourists between India and Russia.

Under an agreement arrived at in February this year, diplomats and official passport holders don't need visas for travel to each other's country.

As part of efforts to boost people-to-people contacts, Lavrov proposed 2008, as the year of Russia in India and 2009, as the year of India in Russia.

On UN reforms, Lavrov said Russia wanted maximum unity within the world body to carry this forward.

Indian officials said that both sides also reviewed the recent developments in Central Asia and hoped that stability would continue to prevail in this sensitive area, which had earlier been targets of terrorist attacks.

Responding to a question after his meeting with Lavrov, Singh said India was concerned about the situation in Central Asia and any de-stabilisation of this region was a source of worry to it.

The need to continue high-level exchanges was stressed by both sides. In the last one-month, there have been visits to Russia by President A P J Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Indian Ambassadors to Russia, Kanwal Sibal and China, Nalin Surie, are in Russia to assist Singh in the talks. Rajiv Dogra, Additional Secretary in the External Affairs Ministry and Ashok Kantha, Joint Secretary, are also part of the Indian delegation.

PTI