India and Russia continuing their amicable relations now will enter into large defense deals. The ongoing meeting of Defense Minister A K Antony and his Russian counterpart Anatoly Serdyukov will aim to resolve problems which have come up in front of military projects for Sukhoi-30MKI fighters, stealth frigates and missile destroyers, and T-90S main-battle tanks.

The scheduled eighth meeting of the IRIGC-MTC (Indo-Russian inter-governmental commission on military-technical cooperation) is expected to resolve the issues and differences on joint futuristic projects for the fifth-generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) and multi-role transport aircraft (MRTA). Russia is a major supplier of defense products to India, and ongoing contracts and projects in the pipeline are worth $15 billion.

Antony said that Russia is the only country with which India has IRIGC-MTC, and the Indo-Russian strategic partnership is crucial for both the countries. However, the major issue with India-Russia defense relation is that, Russia creates roadblocks in Transfer of Technology (ToT). Also, it does not stick to delivery schedules, and jacks up costs midway through execution of agreements.