MOSCOW, March 16: Russia has sold 10 billion dollars of arms to India over the last five years and contracts worth nine billion are in the pipeline, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov said on Thursday.

“Contracts worth some nine billion dollars are in various stages of preparation,” Mr Zhukov said in an interview with the news agency Interfax.

“In the last five years, the total of military equipment exports to India has surpassed the 10 billion dollar mark,” he said.

Moscow has been Delhi’s main foreign arms supplier for decades.

Moscow and New Delhi signed an accord last December on joint development and production of various state-of-the-art military projects.

“The new generation of transport aircraft and fifth-generation fighter aircraft are two projects of this type,” Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said then after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.—AFP