PM to hold talks with Medvedev, Putin

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Seeking to enhance bilateral cooperation in nuclear, energy, defence and economic spheres, India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will hold a summit meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev

after which both countries are to sign major deals in the fields of defence, health and science and technology.

Singh, who arrived here on Thursday evening, will visit Kremlin, the seat of power of the Russian Federation, for a meeting with Medvedev and later for delegation-level talks when a host of issues such as the Koondankulam nuclear power plant's units III and IV deal, comprehensive economic cooperation agreement and others are expected to figure and a slew of agreements are to be signed.

The summit meeting comes at a time when Russia is witnessing public unrest over what the protesters allege is a fraud in the Duma elections held Dec 4, which left the ruling United Russia Party with a reduced majority in parliament.

After the summit meeting, the prime minister will attend a India-Russia meeting of captains of industry, where hurdles relating to growth of bilateral trade, which hovers close to $10 billion, will be debated. The two countries have fixed a target of $20 billion by 2015.

But India-Russia bilateral trade is dwarfed when compared to Russia-China trade that is worth about $60 billion.

Later in the evening, Singh is slated to meet Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who is also the ruling United Russia's presidential candidate for the March 2012 polls and who is the target of current anti-government road stirs in Russia.