Russian PM Yevgeny meets Congress party's President Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi

From the archive record

Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov visits India in 1998 and meets Congress party's President Sonia Gandhi at her home in New Delhi. Mr. Primakov leads a high-powered delegation consisting of eight ministers, will oversee the signing of seven fresh agreements, including a broad-based 10-year defence pact providing for military-technical cooperation between the two countries. The existing defence partnership agreement between the two countries expires on December 31, 2000. The two sides will also sign a long-term accord on trade, economic, industrial, financial, scientific and technical cooperation as part of their efforts to deepen and broad-base their continuing friendship. Bilateral trade between the two countries has deteriorated over the past few years and from 5 billion dollars, i