Wednesday, June 15 2005 16:08 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

St Petersburg: Describing India and Russia as partners in combating terrorism, United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi today (Jun 15, 2005) asserted during a meeting with President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg that the fight against the scourge should be transparent without any double standards.

During the meeting at Putin's seaside summer residence at the Konstantiovsky Palace which continued over lunch, Gandhi paid tributes to the victims of the Beslan school carnage in Russia in which over 300 people were killed last year.

She said women and children are mostly the victims of terrorism and recalled that the day she arrived in Russia, there was a blast in Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir in which children had again suffered in the terrorist act.

Gandhi said India and Russia were partners in combating terrorism and added that any fight against the menace should be transparent and no double standards should be applied.

Gandhi was accompanied by External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh and Indian Ambassador to Russia Kanwal Sibal during the talks.

Putin expressed satisfaction at the ongoing cooperation between India and Russia in all spheres of human activities, including Defence.

Bilateral ties were "developing in the best possible way", he was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.

Gandhi noted that the proposal to set up a study group to enhance economic cooperation between the two countries was made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his talks with Putin on May 9 in Moscow.

She said India and Russia had vast potential of cooperation in the fields of biotechnology, Information Technology and energy.

Putin proposed to hold a 'Year of Russia' in India in 2008 and 'Year of India' in Russia in 2009 to enhance people-to-people contacts and cultural interaction between the two countries.

Welcoming Putin's proposal, Gandhi said she would also involve herself in organising those cultural events which will certainly strengthen people-to-people contacts between the two countries.

Kremlin Foreign Policy Advisor Sergei Prikhodko was also present during the talks.