Moscow and New Delhi plan to develop and build fifth generation fighter planes. Russian President Medvedev is in India to renew old ties. He backs India’s aspiration for a permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council. The two partners plan to double trade over the next five years.
New Delhi (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Russia will supply India with fighter jets, missiles and nuclear reactors. The announcement was made yesterday during Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to India. At the same time, "The Russian Federation supports India as a deserving and strong candidate for a permanent seat in an expanded UN Security Council," a joint Russian-Indian statement said.
The declaration follows similar ones by the United States and France. The United Kingdom also does not appear to oppose India’s permanent seat. Only China has not clearly come down one way or the other. In fact, whilst New Delhi and Beijing have seen their relations improve recently, they remain traditional rivals.
China is also not very keen to see Japan get a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.
In his recent visit to India, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said that China “understands and supports India's aspiration to play a greater role in the United Nations, including in the Security Council,” but did not go so far as to endorse a permanent seat for New Delhi.
Russia is one of India’s closest political and economic partners since Soviet times. For decades, it was New Delhi’s main weapons supplier, even though the Indians have recently sought to diversify their suppliers and inched closer to the United States.
Personally I think the Western countries should all pull out of this expensive and useless talking shop. That is, unless we go ahead with the proposal for Hindenburg style airships as we could then harness all that hot air and use it for some useful purpose.
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