New Delhi: Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov met Minister for External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee here on Friday.
Zhukov, who is on a four-day visit to India, along with Mukerjee co-chaired the 12th Plenary Session of the Indo-Russian Inter-Governmental Commission (IRIGC) on trade, economic, scientific, technological and cultural cooperation. He will also meet Finance Minister P Chidambaram.
The Russian delegation will also be holding Joint Group level meetings with their Indian counterparts.
The 11th session of the IRIGC was co-chaired by the former External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh and Zhukov in Moscow in October 2005.
Zhukov is also likely to use his visit to finalise the economic growth agenda to be taken up at the forthcoming Indo-Russia Summit to be held here in January 2007.
The 54-member Russian delegation, which arrived here yesterday, includes several leading industrialists.
In a joint declaration issued during Russian President Vladimir Putin's 2004 visit to India, the two governments agreed that there was a necessity to encourage investment by energy firms in each other's countries.
Russia also backs a bigger role for India at the U.N. Security Council.
New Delhi and Moscow share a strong friendship dating back to India's support of the Soviet Union during the Cold War. About 70 per cent of India's military equipment is of Russian origin.
India, however, has moved away from its near complete dependence on Moscow for weapons, and now buys from Israel, South Africa and the United States too.
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