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Putin upbeat on trade ties as India rolls out red carpet

Russian President Vladimir Putin promised wide-ranging discussions on economic relations, terrorism and a strategic partnership on Tuesday as India rolled out the red carpet for his four-day visit.

The former KGB spy, who arrived in New Delhi on Monday night, inspected a guard of honour at the sandstone presidential palace as Indian air force jets screamed overhead.

Wearing a suit and looking solemn, he then paid homage to the father of independent India, Mahatma Gandhi, laying a wreath and planting a sapling tree at a memorial beside the Yamuna river.

"The focus of discussion will be the development of bilateral relations between India and Russia and co-ordination of mutual efforts on the international scenario," Putin told reporters at the presidential palace in New Delhi.

The establishment of a strategic partnership will be the centrepiece of the visit, which both sides hope will breathe life into a relationship that has flagged since the end of the Cold War.

The visit, the first by a Russian president to India in almost eight years, has also been billed as a chance to rebuild a trading partnership which has withered miserably since New Delhi and Moscow both cast off socialist controls in the early 1990s.

Low on euphoria

But Indian commentators could not resist drawing a comparison between the euphoria of last March's visit by US President Bill Clinton and Putin's arrival, which failed to make it as top story in several national dailies.

Indeed, media reports said the government was having trouble persuading lawmakers to attend Putin's address to parliament on Wednesday. When Clinton addressed the house, every seat was taken and deputies later mobbed him for handshakes.

Putin left Raj Ghat for meetings with External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

He will then sign about 10 pacts on science, technology, atomic energy, defence, civil aviation, agriculture and education after delegation talks at Hyderabad House, an opulent palace that once belonged to one of India's former princely states.

The strategic partnership is expected to bind the two sides to non-participation in alliances against each other or treaties and agreements which infringe upon each other's sovereignty.

Both sides stress that the partnership is not aimed against any country and should not be seen as a strategic alliance.

"As far as the strategic partnership is concerned...we mean the long-term nature of our relations in various fields," Putin said.

While India is actively building up crucial ties with the United States, Putin's Russia is looking for a rebalance after the pro-Western course of its first post-Soviet years.

Trade, terrorism, military hardware

Putin said the two sides would discuss joint efforts to fight terrorism. Both are wrestling with armed Islamic separatism, one in Kashmir and the other in Chechnya, and both are worried about the radical Islamic agenda of Afghanistan's Taleban movement.

The two sides are also determined to reinforce trade ties.

Bilateral trade stood at some $1.5 billion last year, a far cry from the $5.5 billion of 1990 when a mechanism under which India sold the Soviet Union goods for debt incurred for arms purchases was working smoothly.

Discussions with India on nuclear energy co-operation are sensitive given the international restrictions that Russia must honour on transfer of technology, though Putin said Moscow would respect its commitments and obligations in this area.

One of the biggest Russian interests is increasing military co-operation with India, whose army has been historically equipped with Soviet-designed weapons.

Russia has sold sophisticated Su-30 fighters and T-90 tanks to India and will sell production licences for both.

Putin's attention risks being distracted during his India tour by developments in Yugoslavia, where Russia has offered to mediate in a stand-off between the opposition and President Slobodan Milosevic.

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