MOSCOW. March 4 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent a greeting message to India on occasion of the inauguration of a Kalashnikov rifle factory operated by a Russian-Indian joint venture.
"Traditionally, military-technical cooperation is one of the key areas of the especially privileged strategic partnership between Russia and India," Putin said in the message published on the Kremlin's website on Sunday.
For more than seven decades, Moscow has been delivering reliable and high-quality weapons and equipment to Indian friends, Putin said. "With the help from our country, India has created approximately 170 military and manufacturing facilities," he said.
"The new joint venture will produce the latest 200 series of world-famous Kalashnikov assault rifles, gradually moving to a full localization of the production," he said.
"This will make it possible for the Indian defense sector to completely meet the demand from the country's defense and security forces for this type of small arms made on the basis of advanced Russian technologies," he said.
"My colleague and friend Mr. Modi and I agreed to organize an Indian production of Kalashnikov rifles during my official visit to the Republic last October," Putin recalled.
"The relevant intergovernmental agreement was soon prepared and signed. In this regard, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to Russian and Indian specialists, everyone who helped develop this project so swiftly," Putin said.
Putin expressed confidence that the new factory's start would boost India's defense capabilities and help further develop R&D and manufacturing in the country's national economy, creating new skilled jobs and incentives for organizing the personnel's vocational training.
"And the factory will become another symbol of friendship and constructive cooperation between our countries," he said.
As reported earlier, a factory to manufacture AK-203 assault rifles was opened in Korwa in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh on Sunday.
A total of 750,000 Kalashnikov AK-203 assault rifles are to be manufactured under the project, Rosoboronexport CEO Alexander Mikheyev said.