NEW DELHI, Nov 30: Russia tersely told India on Tuesday that it would no longer transfer any high technology defence system to New Delhi without a pact to protect intellectual property rights (IPR) , and said India's bid to buy American Patriot anti-missile system would not work on Russian-supplied platforms.
Press Trust of India quoted Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov as saying in Moscow that it was not going to move further in sharing sophisticated military technologies with India without the IPR pact.
"In our military-technical cooperation we have come to a stage when, without signing of the agreement on the protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), we cannot look ahead," Mr Ivanov said here ahead of his trip to New Delhi to prepare the ground work for President Vladimir Putin's three-day visit beginning this week.
During his stay in New Delhi, Mr Ivanov will co-chair the fourth session of the Indo-Russian inter-governmental commission on military cooperation along with his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee to finalize defence agenda for talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Putin on Dec 3.
On reports about India's plans to assess the US Patriot ABM system, he said Russia has already demonstrated its S-300 system to Indian experts at several occasions. He expressed doubt whether Patriot missiles could be amalgamated into the integrated air defence system modelled by Russia for India, PTI said.
"To do this we have to get access to the source codes of Patriot missiles, which the US will not give. We also will not give our source codes if India goes ahead with the American system of control," Mr Ivanov said.
He indicated that the absence of IPR protection agreement has become an 'obstacle' in the development of defence cooperation involving the cutting-edge technologies. "It has become something of an obstacle if we think of future, we can fulfil our previous obligations without this, but we cannot move ahead in high technology cooperation," Mr Ivanov said.
He noted that Russia had submitted the draft of the agreement to India two years ago, but the Indian side had not even given its suggestions or proposals on it. "We will not give away such high technology without signing IPR agreement, for free.
India is a priority and strategic partner of Russia. It was also a strategic partner of Soviet Union, which used to give many things for free, but things have changed. Russia is a different country and there is a need for taking cognizance of this reality," Mr Ivanov said.
He also expressed Russia's displeasure over the way New Delhi is treating its strategic partner on the issue of WTO accession and recognition of Russia as a market economy, a step already taken by the European Union, China and the US.
Mr Ivanov said Indo-Russian defence cooperation was moving ahead in accordance with the long-term military technical programme till year 2010. However, like BrahMos cruise missile project, which was not part of this programme, some new projects are in the pipeline for 2005 and in the coming years.
"I cannot share with you at this juncture, what are these projects. At proper time you will come to know," Mr Ivanov said when asked about these projects. Space could become a major, thrust area of military cooperation, PTI said.
"I would rather say the civilian and military cooperation involving space would become a thrust area of bilateral interaction," Mr Ivanov told correspondents from India in Moscow. He said Moscow was not afraid of competition in the Indian arms bazaar from the growing number of new players, including the United States.
