Thursday, December 1 2005 20:25 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Moscow: Taking their strategic partnership to a new high, India and Russia will sign four key agreements on space and defence cooperation during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's three-day visit beginning Sunday.

Besides the crucial military Intellectual Property Right (IPR) agreement, an accord is also to be signed to amend the Indo-Russian Military-Technical Programme till 2010 to enhance and expand strategic partnership relations, Indian Ambassador Kanwal Sibal said here today (Dec 1, 2005).

Also, space agencies of the two countries will sign a Technology Safeguard Agreement to operationalise the 2004 pact on the joint use of space-based Global Navigational Satellite System (GLONASS) to end the dependency on the US Pentagon controlled Global Positioning System (GPS) in military and civil applications.

ISRO and Russian Space Agency Roskosmos would also ink an agreement on cooperation in Solar Physics.

"The GLONASS agreement is very significant. It is a signal to the whole world to show how far Russia is ready to go with India in its strategic partnership," Sibal said in obvious reference to Moscow's denial of such sensitive partnership with China.

This agreement provides for the joint development of new generation Glonass-K navigational satellites and their launch from India, aided by Indian launch vehicles.

Moscow could have done it alone but due to a tight schedule to replace ageing Soviet-era satellites and keep it operational, it has taken on India as an equal partner in the project," Sibal said.