India and Russia on Monday inked an agreement for joint production of over six lakh AK-203 assault rifles at a manufacturing facility in Uttar Pradesh's Amethi besides firming up another pact on military cooperation for 10 years. The rifles will be manufactured for the Indian armed forces at a cost of around Rs 5,000 crore. The agreements were signed at the 20th meeting of the
PM Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin met during the 21st India-Russia Annual Summit on Monday to discuss the entire gamut of bilateral relations, including regional and global issues.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu will visit India to hold the inaugural "2+2" ministerial dialogue between the two countries on December 6, the Russian embassy has said.
India and Russia are expected to hold first 2+2 dialogue later this month. The talks will feature foreign and defense ministers of both countries. For the dialogue, Indian Defense minister Rajnath Singh and Indian External affairs minister Dr S Jaishankar will be travelling to Russia. The mechanism was announced in April of this year, with Russia becoming the 4th country with which India has this mechanism. India already has 2+2 mechanism with US, Japan and Australia.