The Defence Minister Mr AK Antony leaves New Delhi tomorrow on a four day visit to Russia to commission the Indian Naval Ship Vikramaditya and also to co-chair the 13th Meeting of the India – Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Military Technical Cooperation (IRIGC-MTC) with his Russian counterpart Mr Sergey Shoigu. The commissioning ceremony will take place at Sevmash Shipyard, Severodvinsk on Saturday and the IRIGC-MTC meeting will take place in Moscow on Monday.
Mr Antony will be accompanied by high level delegations for both the events. The Chief of Naval Staff Admiral DK Joshi and Defence Secretary Mr RK Mathur will be among those present at the commissioning of INS Vikramaditya. The Russian Deputy Prime Minister Mr Dmitry Rogozin and Defence Minister Mr Shoigu will also be there to witness the landmark event.
The Defence Minister’s delegation to the IRIGC-MTC will include Mr Mathur, Secretary, Defence Production Mr GC Pati, DG Acquisition Mr SB Agnihotri and senior officers of the Armed Forces.
At the IRIGC-MTC meeting a broad spectrum of issues related to on-going and proposed defence projects and defence cooperation between the two countries will be discussed. The two sides will also exchange views on regional and global issues of concern to both the countries.
IRIGC-MTC was established in 2000 with a view to strengthen defence cooperation between the two countries. Since then it has been meeting annually, alternately in India and Russia, at the level of the Defence Ministers of the two countries, to review and discuss matters relating to bilateral defence cooperation between the two countries.