India and Russian Defence cooperation advancing to joint research, development and production of advanced defence technologies and systems

Indo-Russian relationship have stood the test of time established since Indian independence . Soviet Union had a cardinal role in setting the foundations of Indian industrial base. Eight of India’s 16 heavy industry in the period 1956-61 were built with Soviet help.In 1971 the two countries signed the Treaty of Peace, Friendships and Co-operation that stands till date in its revised version.  In 2000 dawned the era of strategic partnership between the two nations that saw close coordination the areas of international peace and security and resolution of global and regional issues.  Later in 2000 two very important institutional dialogue mechanisms were set up. These were Indo-Russia Inter Governmental Commission or IRIGC for short. IRIGC had two platforms; IRIGC –TEC dealing with technological and cultural Co-operation and IRIGC-MTC dealing with military technical cooperation. Bilateral cooperation expanded to areas of oil exploration, solar energy, gas and others.