Wednesday, December 21 2005 15:27 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: India and Russia have an agreement on a long-term programme of military and technical cooperation for the period up to the year 2010, Defense Minister Pranab Mukherjee informed the Rajya Sabha today (Dec 21,2005).

The agreement signed on December 21, 1998 provides an institutional mechanism for discussion on defense cooperation with the Russian Federation in the form of "India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Military Technical Cooperation," he said in a written reply.

Co-chaired by Mukherjee, the fifth meeting of the commission was held in Russia on November 15-16, 2005, which reviewed the progress of the ongoing bilateral defense cooperation and discussed various issues of mutual interest in the areas of defense and security.

"Both sides had expressed satisfaction at the ongoing level of defense exchanges and cooperation between the two countries, " he said.