NEW DELHI: President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia’s growing ties with Pakistan are good for India because of their anti-terror focus, The Hindu reported on Wednesday, the day the Russian leader was due to arrive in Delhi for a summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Responding to questions submitted by The Hindu, Mr Putin also said the scope of the agreement signed with Islamabad last month, which was the first of its kind between Russia and Pakistan, was limited.

Also read: Pakistan, Russia sign landmark defence cooperation agreement

“[Regarding] Pakistan, we have held talks on Russia’s possible assistance aimed at improving the counter-terrorism and anti-drug operations. In my view, this kind of cooperation serves the long-term interests of all countries of the region, including India,” he said.

Playing down concerns that the cooperation could lead to a shift in India-Russia ties, or that India’s growing military closeness to the US was “transforming” bilateral ties, he replied: “If some transformations take place, it would be a completely different kind of transformation. The high level of bilateral cooperation and trust allows us to start a gradual transition from the traditional producer-consumer model to joint development and production of advanced weapons systems.”

The paper said the reference was to the Brahmos missile developed jointly by India and Russia, as well as a fifth-generation fighter aircraft.

The Russian leader to hold talks with Indian president, vice-president and prime minister

Mr Putin will hold meetings on Thursday with Prime Minister Modi. He will also meet President Pranab Mukherjee and Vice-President Hamid Ansari.

He hoped to see some “significant achievements” from these meetings. He listed nuclear energy cooperation as a “pillar of the India-Russia strategic partnership”.

He hailed the Kudankulam plant built by Russia as the “world’s only nuclear power plant which meets all the ‘post-Fukushima’ safety requirements”.

Know more: Pakistan seeks ‘maximum share’ in Russian market

To a question by The Hindu on India’s liability laws creating “problems” for further nuclear plants, Mr Putin said Russia could build at least 25 new units. He said a new vision document entitled ‘Strategic Vision of the Strengthening Russian-Indian Cooperation in the Field of Peaceful Uses of the Atomic Energy’ would be signed during the visit.

The Russian president said he “awaits” India’s decision on allotting the site for a new Russian-designed nuclear power plant as well.

Responding to other questions submitted by Indian journalists on the energy partnership, Mr Putin said Russia was looking to “diversify” its natural gas markets from Western countries to Asia.

However, he said a pipeline to India, at the moment, was “commercially unviable”, but added that LNG transportation would continue. Russia hoped for more Indian investment in oil and gas exploration on the lines of ‘Sakhalin-1’ that has supplied more than one million tonnes of oil annually.

Published in Dawn December 11th , 2014