Tuesday, December 6 2005 19:53 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Moscow: Cementing their strategic partnership, India and Russia today (Dec 6, 2005) signed three agreements, including one on protection of intellectual property rights to regulate joint defence work.

The agreements were signed after one-to-one summit talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Russian President Vladimir Putin following delegation-level parleys covering areas of India's requirement of civilian nuclear energy, cooperation in space sector and ways of enhancing bilateral economic and trade ties.

International terrorism and ways to combat it also figured prominently during the parleys.

The agreements were signed in the presence of the Prime Minister and the Russian President after the talks.

Besides, Russia's Federal Space Agency and ISRO signing an agreement on cooperation in the field of solar physics, India and Russia signed a Technology Safeguard Agreement to operationalise the 2004 pact on joint use of space-based Global Navigational Satellite System to provide for joint development of new generation navigational satellites.

One of the key agreements signed between the two sides was protection of intellectual property rights that will regulate joint defence work.

"India and Russia share the perspective to move towards collaborative defence projects, designs, develop and market next generation military products," Singh said at the joint conference with Putin.

"Russia has decided to further partnership in civilian nuclear projects. There is vast potential to increasing cooperation between the two countries given India's growing energy requirements," the Prime Minister said.

"The Kudankulam power project in Tamil Nadu which is being constructed with Russian help will be commissioned in 2007-08," he said.

"We have identified medium range transport aircraft and fifth generation fighter aircraft," Singh said.

Talking about the parleys, the Russian President said serious discussions took place on international and regional politics. Our approaches to resolve the issues are consonant.

Russia and India firmly believe that we will work towards multi-polar system of international relations.

On the issue of terrorism, he said, "We resolutely condemn any act of terror and also double standards in combating the evil. We are convinced that criminals who murder and maim have no justification for their acts."

"Both countries will make efforts to isolate terrorists politically and ideologically and bring them to justice," he added.